People over the age of 50 get shingles more often following surviving a corona infection. This is shown by an evaluation of US health insurance data that was published in the specialist journal “Open Forum Infectious Diseases”. Experts suspect a weakening of the immune system by Covid-19 as the cause.
People over the age of 50 have a 15 percent higher risk of developing shingles following being infected with the corona virus. After treatment of the Covid 19 disease in the hospital, the risk is even increased by 21 percent. This is probably due to the fact that the immune system generally weakens with age and Covid-19 weakens it further. On the one hand, these figures speak for the vaccination once morest shingles, which is recommended for people over the age of 60 (people at risk over the age of 50). On the other hand, they speak in favor of the Covid 19 vaccination, because this also indirectly protects once morest shingles.
Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is caused by the chickenpox virus (varicella zoster virus): After a chickenpox infection in childhood, the viruses remain unnoticed for life in the roots of certain nerve cells near the spinal cord. If the immune system is weakened by age, illness, medication or stress, the virus can be reactivated. They then “wander” along the nerve tracts to the skin, where they cause pain and typical rashes and blisters, which often appear as a band on one side. The pain lasts for months or even years in up to 30 percent of those affected, which is then referred to as post-herpetic neuralgia, which is extremely stressful and sometimes has to be treated in hospital.
Which: DOI 10.1093 / upset / ofac118