Posted on 05/24/2024 11:40:56 AM PDT by DallasBiff
DEAR DR. ROACH: I am 70. I got my shingles vaccination in 2018. I took two doses of the Shingrix vaccine. I was invited to dinner at someone’s house where someone just got shingles. Am I still protected? -- S.C.
ANSWER: About 99% of North Americans are immune to the varicella-zoster virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, either because they had it as a child or because they got the vaccine. Exposure to the virus, whether it was due to chicken pox or shingles, can cause chicken pox in a person who does not have immunity.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Ditto. Widower who is immune, so I’ve never joined the church’s shingles group.
But I thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.
Vitamin C is very effective against shingles. This was published in 1950, but of course there is no money to be made treating a disease with vitamin C.
Yup...we had gatherings.
I’ll take my chances and avoid the shingles vaccine.
I got shingles during the summer of 2021 and my doctor was insisting that I must be immune compromised. She ran a battery of tests and discovered I was actually in good health. Well, it just so happened that when I came down with it, my fully vaxxed mother-in-law was staying with us for a month. My wife and oldest daughter (the two younger ones haven’t hit puberty) have wild menstrual disruptions when my MIL is here as well. Now I’m willing to admit that her mere presence is stressful, but we get along. So, who knows?
I received the single dose shingles vaccine several years ago and they told me it was good for life. Then, they came up with the double dose vaccine and I said, “Nope, either they lied to me the first time, or they’re lying to me now.” I’ll stick with the one dose I got initially.
“I had the chicken pox way back when I was 7 or 8, everybody got the chicken pox back then, was out of school for a week, no big deal, it was a rite of passage.”
which means the virus went into hybernation inside your nerves and can be reactivated around said hybernation site if said nerves are tweaked, damaged or jolted ...
a wasp sting on one of the chest meridians activated shingles for me along the affected nerve meridian ... a friend got a bad bump on the side of the head and developed shingles there ... and so on ...
trick is to recognize what’s going on ASAP and start taking an antiviral like acyclovir within a few hours of the outbreak ... also, some heavy duty prescription corticosteroid cream can help with symptoms ... the antiviral will shorten the outbreak ... after a shingles outbreak, i personally see no reason to take a vaccine since one will have natural immunity, despite the medical community pretending like a vaccine in such a case is BETTER than natural immunity
When my oldest brother started first grade he brought home chicken pox, mumps and measles (but not all at the same time). That was pretty much the norm back then. When the oldest sibling started school he would bring all of the childhood diseases home for the whole family to enjoy.
I think that’s true, but I tend to agree with the thrust of the article. I had SARS 27 years ago and nearly died. Among other things afterward I came down with laryngitis for four months the doctors couldn’t explain. Got a poison oak exposure that literally caused an outbreak over most my body. And I got shingles. Had chicken pox when I was little and I think the virus was hiding those many years and got to work when my immune system was taking some time off
“But I thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.”
yep ... that’s EXACTLY why people get shingles: the chicken pox virus goes into hibernation in the nervous system until one of said infected nerves is disturbed or irritated ...
Your right it does.
This isn’t like getting covid creating natural immunity....kind of the opposite actually. Chicken pox leaves the shingles virus dormant in the system.
I got it right before Thanksgiving 2019. Stress can actually bring it on by knocking the immune system out of wack. I think that’s what happened to me. Stressed at work and about to retire at the end of 2019.
You might not think it but preparing to retire is stressful.....was for me anyway.
Didn’t completely shake it until the next February......bad juju.
“I had the chicken pox way back when I was 7 or 8, everybody got the chicken pox back then, was out of school for a week, no big deal, it was a rite of passage.”
I almost lost an eye to shingles a few years back.
arrggg! NOT acyclovir but famciclovir ... darn spell checker
I am 75 years old and I never had any of the so-called childhood deceases...No mumps, measles, chicken pox...NOTHING..
“goes into hibernation in the nervous system until one of said infected nerves is disturbed or irritated”
Yep, it attacks a group of nerves.
For me it ran from my breast bone around my chest, under my left arm all the way to my backbone.
It was like having the flu, a nasty burning rash and a bad sunburn all at on time.
It was awesome
The absolute risk reduction for this blockbuster drug is 2.5% Plus it has been linked to necrotizing retinosis and -wait for it- shingles!
Confused. This is not new info.
Like tb the chix pox virus lives in body and reactivate when there is opportunity.
“thought having had chicken pox in the past increased the likelihood of getting shingles.”
It does! I’ve had both
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