Just like any conventional medicines there is always a risk of severe allergic reaction but it is very rare for a vaccine. If you do experienced severe allergic reaction, you should check back with your doctor. As of CDC’s latest report, there are no serious problems recorded coming from the use of the shingle vaccine. But there are minor complication listed below.
- Itching, redness or soreness where it was injected – 33% probability
– Headache – 1.42% probability
For more information you can check the shingles vaccine information sheet of CDC.
It turned out that this vaccine was released 2 years before my mom had her first breakout of shingles. Unfortunately it was not available here in the Philippines. The vaccine Zostavax was released to the public in 2006. Unlike other vaccines (e.g. hepatitis, chickenpox, mumps, measles etc), this shingles vaccine has a much lower efficacy rate of only 50 percent. Meaning you have a 50-50 chance of still getting shingles. But once you get vaccinated, even if you still get shingles, the pain and duration are reduced compared to people who doesn’t have it.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention also note that the vaccine is not designed to treat active shingles or postherpetic neuralgia (the pain caused by damaged nerves after the rash is gone) once you already have it.
The CDC recommends that people who are 60 years old and above should take the shingles vaccine even if they don’t recall that they had chickenpox. Because based on their statistics, around 99% of Americans who are 40 years old and above have had chickenpox. Sometimes people forget or just didn’t realize that they had it.
Now, before you decide to get a shot of the vaccine, take time to review the said information sheet. Particularly to the possible side effects and then check if you belong to the list of people who should NOT get the vaccine. I wont mention the details but basically, people who have low immune system should not take the vaccine (e.g. people who have AIDS, Cancer patients that just went through chemo, leukemia, a pregnant woman etc.)
In my opinion, the vaccine is relatively still new. There is still an ongoing study to check how long the vaccine remains effective. Currently they are saying that it is good for around 6 years.
So how much is the shingles vaccine cost? It varies, but based on what I have found it is around $200 to $250, including the administration fee, consultation fee etc. You need to check your health insurance on how much they will cover.
4 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Lynn DiMuro
December 16, 2012 at 3:42 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
i got the shingles on two days ago. The injected area is red, no itchiness, very minimal soreness, but I did feel very tired yesterday and had a slight headache. How long do the side effects last??
chazper
February 27, 2013 at 10:12 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Hi Lynn,
Very sorry for my late reply, got a lot of spam and it’s hard sorting through them… just recently installed anti-spam. Anyway, how are you doing right now?
Not so sure what you had… are you saying you had the shingles vaccine and experienced the side effects? I hope they didn’t last long. Can you share your experience? How long did they exactly last?
Again for other readers, as a reference on shingle vaccine side effects from CDC http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-shingles.pdf
Deb
April 27, 2013 at 9:19 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
I received the shingles vaccine and the next day had bad joint and muscle pain in my arms, legs and back. I also felt sick to my stomach. How long does this last and should I contact my doctor or is this normal?
chazper
April 28, 2013 at 11:24 am (UTC 8) Link to this comment
Hi Deb,
I hope you contacted your doctor immediately. I think that is not normal, because what you should expect only is to have some reactions around the area you had the shot… and some headache. How are you feeling right now?
Hi All,
If you have severe allergic reaction with the vaccine, CDC recommends to call your doctor immediately, tell them what happened, the date and time it happened and the date you had the shot.
Ask your provider to report the reaction by filing a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) form. Or you can file this report through the VAERS
website at http://www.vaers.hhs.gov, or by calling 1-800-822-7967.