Shingles Vaccine

Same as with Chickenpox prevention is always better than cure and luckily a Shingles vaccine is available.

The website NHS Shingles Vaccine has lots of useful information on the shingles vaccine including types, ingredients, elligbility and how to get it. Interested customers can always be signposted to the website.

There are 2 types of shingles vaccine given in the UK. You can check all the ingredients in the patient leaflets:

• Shringrix® https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.12054.pdf given as 2 doses. It contains a protein from the varicella-zoster virus, but not the virus itself, so it cannot cause shingles or chickenpox but can still create an immune response.
• Zostavax® https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/6101/pil  given as 1 dose. This contains a live strain of the varicella-zoster virus that has been weakened so that it stimulates the immune system but does not cause disease in healthy people.

Both vaccines are refridgerated in a similar way to Chickepox vaccine as covered earlier on in this module. The pre and post injection process are also similar as covered earlier.

In England there are 3 groups of people eligible for the Shingles Vaccine and they include:

1. People who turn 65 on or after 1 September 2023
2. People aged 70 to 79
3. People aged 50 and over with a severely weakened immune system

The eligibility for those people living in Scotland can be found at Scotland Shingles In Wales here Wales Shingles and in Northern Ireland here NI Shingles.

The vaccine benefits the recipient in two ways:

1. It reduces a persons chances of getting shingles
2. It reduces their chances of getting serious problems if they do get shingles

Most of the side effects of the shingles vaccine are mild and get better within 2 or 3 days.

They can include:

• Swelling, itchiness, bruising or pain where the injection was given
• A headache
• An aching body
• Feeling tired
• A high temperature
• Shivering (chills)

More serious side effects such as a severe allergic reaction are very rare. The person who vaccinates you will be trained to deal with allergic reactions and treat them immediately.

Remember Chickenpox Vaccine and Shingles Vaccine are not the same thing.