To say, shingles vaccines!

[user109876543]

As a public service announcement.

Get them if you're of an age, and encourage any older parents or relatives to get them.

Not only do they protect against the nightmare of shingles, but there is now good evidence they have a protective effect against dementia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03201-5

WISH I could. I'm almost 67 and people younger than me can get it - but I can't have it until I'm 70. Which is utterly bizarre, but the "roll out" says them's the rules.

I do wonder if the rules are at least partly down to stock issues? I would guess shingles is one of those things that costs the NHS (and the country) much more in the long run than rolling out the vaccine earlier would do.

Not to mention that even a slight reduction in dementia would ease the medical/social care burden.

They had a big TV campaign a couple of years ago saying over 65 and then I realised that a lot of people were excluded when I looked into it, it wasn't made clear though at all though on the TV advert

I wonder how many over 65s rung the surgery about getting their jab and were told, not for you.

Me for one

Yup. I was.
And to have done privately £500 for the 2 doses.
However, I now have shingles.
One trip to A&E to check out excruciating pain (no rash at that stage) triage, ecg, x ray,
bloods cost unknown? diagnosed muscle inflammation.
Spots I thought were insect bites initially appeared same day so went to pharmacy to have it checked. Shingles diagnosed and 7 days of 800mg antivirals 5 times a day given. Cost around £50
I've missed work so no tax, NI paid.
GP consultation and Gabentin, Naproxen, Omaprazole prescribed. The pain is unlike anything I've experienced..Friend said childbirth doesn't come anywhere near!
Not slept well since it started 4 weeks ago
Unspecified time for this to last. Weeks, months, might never go.
Could reoccur.
All could have been prevented by including me (and others late 60s)in the programme though accept no vaccine is 100%
So frustrating 😫

Sorry if I've missed it on the thread, but what are the age ranges for eligibility on the NHS?

If you become 65 after year beginning 1st September. But not if you were 65 before 1/9/23

I certainly was! I don't get why they couldn't just draw a line and say everyone over 65.

I'm still 66 and I'm in the ineligible group!

My lovely grandad had his final years of life totally ruined by post herpetic neuralgia- an after effect of shingles -on his head and face. He used to lay in agony and moan and cry. It was horrendous and torture. He couldn't live a normal life and survived on a multitude of tablets everyday. I've always advise everyone to have the vaccine after watching a very happy and healthy man who would cycle and walk for miles daily turn into a weeping zombie until he died.

Definitely get the vaccine if you can,I've had shingles 3 times and it's no fun I can tell you.No one will take the risk of vaccinating me after a bad reaction to a flu jab years ago but if I could have this one I would.

I had shingles 3 years ago and the initial outbreak was 4 weeks of agonising pain, no sleep and total exhaustion. I’ve been left with post herpetic pain which never goes away for a single minute. Sometimes it’s less painful than others but it never goes away totally. The extent of the area affected has reduced gradually which gives me some hope I might be pain free at some point - but my advice is to get the vaccine even if you think you haven’t had chickenpox. You really don’t want to live like this for years and years. It’s utterly miserable.

We had a lot of calls after that tv advert, it was so misleading and created lots of anguish and extra work for us.

It’s an expensive vaccine and there isn’t the funds or the capacity to offer it all at once to everyone 65 and over. It has to be phased in. The criteria do seem arbitrary and it’s frustrating for us too as the frontline for giving it.

You can check here https://www.getshinglesready.co.uk (this is only for England).

If you show as eligible please insist your surgery checks and books you in - some staff are still very confused by the criteria and will tell you as you’re now 66 you can’t have it. YOU CAN! As long as you were 65 on or after 01/09/2023 you remain eligible.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64db769c3fde6100134a527f/UKHSA_12644_Shingles_Eligibility_table_poster_2023_12_landscape_WEB.pdf

I can imagine the up front cost must be very high and I'm sorry to hear it created a lot of extra work and aggravation!

I do think this is where health systems can be very inefficient, though, as I'm still convinced it costs the NHS and employers more to deal with people having shingles than it would to (mostly) prevent it, and that's without the new information about it potentially having a role in preventing dementia. A friend who's a consultant has said the problem is that everyone's basically trying to deal with their own budget rather than being able to implement comprehensive bigger picture thinking. He was specifically talking about a medication he knows some of his patients would really benefit from in the long run but that he's not allowed to prescribe due to the cost up front.

But I know large organisations that are critical to society tend to be very cumbersome to change.

I think PHE and the JCVI are very aware that in the long run it’s a cost effective programme. However at approx £320 per person plus costs to give it, I guess they need a staggered delivery to avoid bankruptcy!

I'm sure they could have done it a better way without excluding people but then of course they wouldn't have been able to have a tv ad saying 65s then.

I called my doctor's surgery today to ask about the vaccine, they said I'm too young- on one hand, that's not good, I wanted the vaccine, on the other- I'm too young, I'm actually too young for something. I told the receptionist she was my favourite person at the surgery😂

user109876543
"I do think this is where health systems can be very inefficient, though, as I'm still convinced it costs the NHS and employers more to deal with people having shingles than it would to (mostly) prevent it, and that's without the new information about it potentially having a role in preventing dementia."

The way I heard it on the news, if they hadn't have created the control group by making arbitrary cut-off dates, they wouldn't have had the data to identify the possible prevention of dementia.

I suppose us guinea pigs should be grateful to contribute to valuable research.

That is what people are cross about

The TV ad was made by GSK who make Shingrix - nothing to do with the NHS at all really. They seem to have pulled it quite quickly once complaints were made about the rules supplying promotion of prescription only products in the UK, as well as the teeny tiny small print pointing viewers to its website after it had misled them about the eligibility criteria.

Oh, I didn't realise that, I thought it was the NHS /Government

"This study is observational, and causality cannot be demonstrated. "

Another one who has never had chicken pox.

No immunity, as I was tested to check.

No sure if I would need the vaccine or not.

Yes, and they say up front that there should be a proper, controlled study, but the numbers are compelling enough to potentially provide additional impetus for getting the vaccine if eligible.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/02/study-finds-strongest-evidence-yet-that-shingles-vaccine-helps-cut-dementia-risk