Should I get the shingles vaccine?

By Devon Lucier, AGNP, Grace Cottage Family Health

If you have ever known anyone with shingles, you will understand why the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that eligible adults become vaccinated.

Shingles is a very painful rash caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. Anyone who has had chicken pox (and rarely, those who had the chicken pox vaccine, which includes a weakened strain of the virus) can develop shingles. For reasons not yet understood, the chickenpox virus reactivates and causes shingles. It may have to do with one’s immune system, and the tendency increases with age.

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