The Great Vaccine That Your Parents Don't Get

Simple questions: if your parents were in an age group (over 60) where they were at risk of developing a common disfiguring painful debilitating, sometimes blinding or fatal, disease and you learned that they could get an effective vaccine which had about a 1-1/2% risk of a serious adverse effect, would you tell them to get the vaccine? And would the doctor have it to give to them?

The disease the vaccine has a 51% chance of preventing is shingles (herpes zoster), a viral inflammation of the nerves caused by the chickenpox virus, which is contracted in childhood. The painful complication the vaccine has a 67% chance of preventing is postherpetic neuralgia, a miserable disabling complication of shingles which requires expensive medicine for partial relief and may last for years.

According to The Medical Letter Letter On Drugs and Therapeutics (5/31/2010), citing various studies, only 2% of the over 60 years old patients in a 2007 study had received the vaccine. Cost ($194 wholesale),the requirement for freezer preservation, and Medicare Part D reimbursement, were factors affecting vaccine use.

The vaccine (Zostavax) is better than having shingles. Tell that to your parents and have them discuss it with their doctors. And if a doctor isn't familiar with the vaccine and won't take the time to learn about it, maybe it's time to seek out another doctor.