CDC recommends Zostavax to prevent shingles in adults

ATLANTA The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a single dose of Merck’s Zostavax even for people who have already had a case of shingles to prevent the painful condition and its potentially long-lasting after-effects, according to published reports. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in 2006 and the CDC issued a provisional recommendation then, which is now replaced by this unanimous recommendation.

Shingles comes from the same virus that causes chicken pox. Anyone who has had chicken pox is vulnerable to an outbreak of shingles because the virus can lie dormant for decades near nerve roots along the spinal cord. Stress, a weakened immune system, and age can allow the virus to be reactivated. Half of people who have reached the age of 85 have already had shingles or will have a case.

The vaccine was tested among 38,000 people 60 and older in a large randomized clinical trial that showed it blocked the disease in half the people and cut the incidence of post-herpetic neuralgia by two-thirds in those who still got shingles after being vaccinated.