Chicken Pox Vaccine

Q:  I read an article about vaccinating for chicken pox. The article suggested that shingles erupt when immunity to the herpes zoster virus declines. It also said that the disease could be prevented in many cases by giving the chicken pox vaccine to middle-aged adults prophylactically. Is this true? Or, since the vaccine is so new, does anyone know yet?

A:  About 10% of adults in the US have never had chicken pox and are therefore susceptible to getting a more severe case if exposed. If a person is not sure if they were infected as a child, an inexpensive blood test is available. The vaccine is 70-90% effective in children, but not many studies have been done with adults. Side effects include fever, soreness at the injection site, and rash.

As stated in an earlier column, shingles (reactivation of the chicken pox virus in nerves) is more common as people get older and their immunity declines. It is impossible to predict if, or when, a person who had chicken pox as a child will get shingles. The vaccine is an inactivated (not live) virus so it is conceivable that vaccinated persons may never get shingles because there is no virus to travel to the nerves and live dormant for years. We haven't had the vaccine long enough to know yet.

Dr. Rebekah Wang-Cheng is a former Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her medical advice column, which answers health-related questions from readers, also appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.