New experimental vaccine can help in the fight against shingles

If you had chickenpox as a child, the virus that caused it may reappear in the future - out of nowhere - to cause shingles. This condition, also known as herpes zoster, is composed of a rash on one side of the body, often accompanied by excruciating pain.  

The rash usually disappears in about a month, but in some people, the pain continues for weeks, months or even years. This chronic pain is called postherpetic neuralgia.

The virus that causes chickenpox, called varicella zoster, not necessarily disappear from the body after chickenpox rash fades. However, the virus can go underground, to be installed in the roots of the nerves that exit the spinal cord. As the immune system becomes weaker with age, varicella zoster may "wake up", start to grow on a nerve root on one side of the body and cause shingles.

A vaccine called Zostavax can help prevent shingles. It is recommended for people 60 years and older. The vaccine is produced by the treatment of varicella zoster live so weaken, but do not kill him. This is what is known as a live attenuated vaccine. Although reasonably well Zostavax to prevent shingles, it tends to be less effective in the elderly. And because it contains live virus should not be administered to people whose immune system is weakened.

A new experimental vaccine is known HZ / Do we have described in the New England Journal of Medicine, it seems to bypass these problems. This vaccine consists of a single viral protein. Zostavax contain all viral proteins.

Efficiency Study internationally zoster in 50 years or more adults (ZOE-50), the new vaccine appears to be effective even in the elderly. You can, however, cause more pain at the injection site and muscle aches and also more frequent headaches than the current vaccine.

HZ / she still faces other tests. The University of Colorado, for example, set up a head to head test of Zostavax and Do HZ / in the younger age (50-59) and older (70-85) adults. Even if the new vaccine works well, FDA approval would still be in a few years.

Herpes zoster, and the all-too-common complication of postherpetic neuralgia can be debilitating conditions such as a new vaccine, more efficient would be a welcome addition. It could help prevent more cases of shingles in the elderly. And HZ / she can not cause infection, it could be given to people whose immune system is weakened.