Hey, hey, hey! My sterling reputation is being unfairly tarnished! I must hasten to point out that during my years of unrestrained wallowing in the fleshpots of SEAsia there was -- believe it or not -- no herpes and certainly no AIDS. Those came along later, a fact for which I am infinitely grateful. Timing is everything.

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2007 DL650
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

I checked and my INS covers the shot fees. I'm 65 and probably had CP as a kid so getting the shot is probably a good idea. I'se gonna do dat this afternoon.
Daughter had a bout with it a few years ago and was in misery for a while. She's a hyper type and that may add to the onset of certain physical ailments. I'm a bit more laid back...almost comatose sometimes.

I managed to get my shot today so I'se should be good for the rest of my miserable life!

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MikeB (re post #21) . . . I am sorry, so very sorry, to hear that you NOWADAYS have BOTH of those diseases you mentioned.
Timing may indeed be everything, and I know that you always keep a smile on your dial . . . but [if I may give some Grandfatherly advice] it sounds like your pendulum must have been working a bit too much overtime in these later years.
. . . Or perhaps I have misunderstood your wording.

Now back to the shingles/chickenpox topic :
A shingles outbreak is usually such a miserable condition to get, and so particularly damaging and nasty if it involves an eyeball, that I have to figure it is a fair decision to have the chickenpox vaccine as a booster of immunity against the shingles/chickenpox virus.

But, it is a relatively expensive vaccine.
. . . So it would be great if some medical expert could chime in, and give us an idea of the percentage risks of a shingles outbreak during the various age brackets; the size of risk reduction after vaccination; whether & by how much an outbreak severity is reduced; whether shots should be repeated at some later stage; etcetera.
Then we could make a costs/benefits informed decision.

However, it is quite possible that such information is not yet entirely clearcut, and that more years of study are required.

In the meantime, I suspect that getting the vaccine shot is a very reasonable choice for anyone over 50 or 60.
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Prime, so sorry to hear about your situation. It's a bitch, for sure. I got it on my back and down my arms when I was 62. Thought it was really bad poison oak at first. My son saw me trying to pour calamine on my back and said "What the f*k?" and rushed me to the ER. I'll always remember lying in bed at night and feeling the pain start growing along my arms and thinking "oh, shit, here it comes again" Nerve pain is the worst. Vicodine helped and some anti-viral meds eventually took care of it. Got the shot, too. Never want to go through that again. I really feel for you, man. Hang in there. One day it will be just a bad memory.

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If you get to it...
and you can't do it...
then there you jolly-well are,
aren't you?
---Lord Buckley---

Excellent. You got me on that one. Hoist'd on my own petard (whatever that is) of ambiguous syntax.

__________________
2007 DL650
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

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Very glad to hear that it was just a miscommunication, MikeB.
Though you haven't actually confirmed or denied . . .

Thought perhaps you had been hoisting your own petard too much.
Having too much of a blast, as yer might say.
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"Herpes zoster, which is commonly known as shingles, is a painful skin rash. This disease is caused by the varicella zoster virus—the same virus that causes chicken pox. After a person recovers from chicken pox, the virus stays dormant in the sensory ganglia and can reactivate years later and cause herpes zoster.

"Each year, about 1 million people develop zoster in the United States. A person's lifetime risk is 30%. Typically, most people have only one occurrence in their lifetime; however, second and even third occurrences are possible.

"Anyone who has had varicella can develop zoster, even children. However, it's most common in adults. About half of all cases occur in men and women 60 years of age and older.

"Adults with zoster are at high risk for post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN); this is the most common complication. PHN causes persistent pain in the area where the rash once was. The incidence, duration, and severity of PHN increases with age. People under 40 years old rarely get PHN; it occurs most commonly in people 60 years of age and older. In March 2011, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the licensure of zoster vaccine to include adults 50-59 years old. This decision was based on results of a clinical trial that followed 22,000 participants for an average of 1.3 years. In this study, the vaccine reduced the risk for zoster by about 70% in adults 50-59 years old.

"Zoster is preventable with vaccination. In a clinical trial involving 38,000 adults 60 years of age or older, the vaccine reduced the risk for zoster by 51% and the risk for PHN by 67%. An observational study in a large health maintenance organization showed similar results of vaccine effectiveness. Zoster vaccine can be given to patients even if they have already had zoster, in order to prevent recurrence."
Medscape: Medscape Access

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2007 DL650A Whee! (SV cam transplant)

Manage the unavoidable.
Avoid the unmanageable.

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Thanks very much for that, PTRider.

50 - 70% reduction in shingles sounds like good value from the vaccine.
Does that info mean that the lifetime risk of shingles drops from 30% down to 10 - 15% ?

The study you mentioned was for a rather short follow-up time . . . so I'm thinking maybe the vaccine's effectiveness of protection will fade off a bit as the years go by, and the figures will drift back up toward that 30% again.
But all rather early to tell, I suppose.

Anyway, you've convinced me to consider having a second go of vaccine in a few years' time.
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Related to this topic is the issue of "number needed to treat," an epidemiological analysis of the effectiveness of specific drug treatments. By and large this is something your doctor -- and especially Big Pharma -- don't want you to know.

There are a number of sites which compile this info. Here's one that's pretty easy to use: The NNT | Quick Summaries of Evidence-Based Medicine

My doctor once suggested to me that I go on statins (like Lipitor) because I have slightly elevated cholesterol but no cardiac problems. If you go to this website look up "Statins for Heart Disease Prevention (Without Prior Heart Disease)" to see what I mean. He wanted me to take an expensive drug for the rest of my life that statistically is more likely to have a deleterious effect on my overall health than positive.

Whatever happened to "First do no harm?" Apparently Merck got that expunged from medical texts.

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2007 DL650
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

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I feel a bit glum after reading anything about NNT (number needed to treat).

My shaky understanding here, points to a vaccine NNT of very roughly 6, as based on PTRider's rough figures. And probably rather higher than 6, as time goes by.

Possibly, some may consider a pair of new Anakees to be a better allocation of their resources (than getting the chickenpox vaccine).

Of course, NNT must always be taken in the context with the bigger picture.
I dare not mention helmet-wearing here . . . but for wearing a car seatbelt, the NNT is likely to be a very high figure.
Still, for the price [ 3 seconds to put on, and 2 to take off ] it is an easy choice to use the belt every time.

Lipitor [which I take myself] is a more difficult decision.
Me and my Scottish blood ~ not blue blood, but I have a little blue pill-cutter [and before you ask . . . it cuts pills of all hues] ~ have got the cost down to about $150 per year.
Is that good value? Possibly not so, but I am willing to take the chance that I can scrounge an extra twilight year or two.

If I had to pay $1000 per year, then my decision might well be different.
Either way, I imagine Big Pharma thrives quite nicely on a host of $150 tributes.

So what is your local typical all-up cost of chickenpox vaccination?
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