Vaccination program to protect against shingles
This winter we are again offering a vaccine to protect our patients against shingles and its complications.
Shingles is an infection caused by the same virus as chicken pox. The virus stays in the body and becomes reactivated later in life to cause a painful blistering rash. Shingles can become complicated by skin infection, persisting pain and neuralgia and scarring. When shingles affects the face and the eyes it can be particularly nasty and in severe cases can affect vision and even cause blindness.
This vaccine will protect you against shingles and also from the complications it can cause. A single vaccination offers lasting protection and is available to protect you even if you have already had shingles. Over the next few years this protection will be offered to everyone between 70 and 80 years of age. This year we are offering the vaccine to any patient between 70 and 80 who has not previously been vaccinated. We will be giving the vaccine as part of our winter vaccination clinic together with flu and pneumonia jabs.
Who will be offered the shingles vaccine this year?
This year the Department of Health have asked us to offer the vaccine to the following age groups.
You will be offered the vaccine if you are between 70 and 80 year old and have not been vaccinated against this previously.
People under 70 years of age will be offered the vaccine in the year following their seventieth birthday. This may mean that in some cases one member of a couple will get the vaccine this year and the other will not. As vaccine is in very limited supply at the moment we are sorry that in these cases we may not have enough vaccine to treat people outside the age ranges above, even if their partner does qualify.
More information about shingles vaccination is available on the NHS Choices Website