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Typically patients take care of a whole host of vaccines when they’re little.\u00a0 Measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, flu: they’re all on the laundry list of shots you get as you grow up.\u00a0\u00a0But now doctors are advising older patients to get a\u00a0vaccine to help prevent shingles in seniors.<\/p>\n
Shingles, a painful blistering skin rash, is more likely to attack seniors when they reach 50 years old.\u00a0 There is a 30% chance a senior will get shingles.\u00a0 That’s why the Food and Drug Administration approved a vaccine, Zostavax, for seniors.\u00a0 The shot, which is manufactured by Merck & Company, is 70% likely to prevent shingles and lessen the symptoms of those who do get it.<\/p>\n
The vaccine was already approved for seniors over 50, but recent studies have shown the drug is effective for younger seniors as well.<\/p>\n
“The likelihood of shingles increases with age. The availability of Zostavax to a younger age group provides an additional opportunity to prevent this often painful and debilitating disease,”\u00a0Karen Midthun Director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said in a news release.<\/p>\n
The only downside to this vaccine is the price, it’s about $160.<\/p>\n
More about shingles<\/strong> Typically patients take care of a whole host of vaccines when they’re little.\u00a0 Measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, flu: they’re all on the laundry list of shots you get as you grow up.\u00a0\u00a0But now doctors are advising older patients to get a\u00a0vaccine to help prevent shingles in seniors. Shingles, a painful blistering skin rash, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/shingles.jpg\")
This painful skin rash is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox.\u00a0 When you get chicken pox, the itchy bumps go away but the virus never does.\u00a0 It stays dormant in the nerve endings of your body until it ‘wakes up’ later on.\u00a0 What causes the virus to ‘wake up’ is still unknown, but stress and any kind of illness that weakens your immune system have been proven to bring on shingles.\u00a0 While chicken pox and shingles come from the same virus, you can still get shingles even if you’ve never had the chicken pox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"