Recently, it is noteworthy that the risk of developing shingles increases in adults over the age of 50 who have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
The research team compared and analyzed US medical data from 394,677 adults 50 years of age and older who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and 1,577,346 adults who had never been diagnosed with COVID-19 during the first year of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began.
The study found that adults 50 years of age and older who were infected with COVID-19 were 15% more likely to get shingles than adults over 50 who had never been infected. In particular, it was found that those who were hospitalized for severe COVID-19 had a 21% higher risk of developing shingles compared to those who were not infected.
The risk of developing shingles persisted for 6 months following diagnosis of COVID-19. Statistically significant adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR) estimates were observed in the period of 1 to 30 days and 91 to 183 days following the diagnosis of COVID-19.
The research team said, “Covid-19 virus infection in adults 50 years of age and older can cause reactivation of the latent varicella-zoster virus (VZV),” the researchers said. emphasized.
Professor Chu Eun-joo of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Soonchunhyang University’s Bucheon Hospital evaluated the results of the study, saying, “It is meaningful in that it confirmed that the risk of developing shingles may be higher in adults over 50 who have a history of COVID-19 infection.”
He continued, “Herpes zoster occurs in a state with a weakened immune system and causes severe pain and neuralgia.” He added, “As an option for healthy old age of middle-aged people in the current corona era, shingles is highly effective in people over 50 with immunity management. Efforts to prevent it in advance through vaccination will be important,” he said.
Herpes zoster is a disease in which the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which had been dormant in the body following suffering chickenpox in the past, is reactivated as immunity is lowered due to physical aging or disease. It can cause a rash, pain, and paresthesia, and post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) that persists even following the rash disappears.
According to a domestic study, the rate of VZV infection in people over 50 years of age ranges from 98.0% to 100% and increases with age, indicating that almost all people have the possibility of developing herpes zoster.
In particular, the incidence of shingles is high in the middle-aged and older people over 50, whose immunity decreases with age. This was 5.3%, and middle-aged people over 50 accounted for regarding 63% of the total.
Currently, the shingles vaccines that can be vaccinated in Korea are ‘Zosterbox’ and ‘Singrix’. The biggest difference between the two is that ‘Zosterbox’ is a live vaccine and ‘Singrix’ is a dead vaccine. Therefore, ‘Zosterbox’ vaccination is contraindicated in immunocompromised patients.
For the same reason, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends giving priority to ‘Singrix’ over ‘Zosterbox’ to those over 50 years of age, and those who have previously received ‘Zosterbox’ have lowered immunity. It is recommended that those who have become infected should receive an additional dose of ‘Singrix’.
‘Singrix’ was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in September last year as ‘Adults over the age of 50 or those over the age of 18 who are at high or expected to have a high risk of shingles due to reduced immunity or immunosuppression due to disease or treatment’. was approved for the purpose of preventing herpes zoster.
Singrix proved effective in preventing herpes zoster and good safety through the ZOE-50 and ZOE-70 studies, phase 3 clinical trials. showed a preventive effect.
In addition, in the ZOE-70 study of patients over 70 years of age, as well as the ZOE-50 study participants who were over 70 years of age, the results showed 91.3% of those in their 70s and 91.4% of those over 80 years of age. It has proven to be more than 90% effective in preventing age groups.
In addition, through the long-term follow-up study of the two studies, Singrix confirmed that the preventive effect of 90.9% was maintained for 7.1 years following the first vaccination in all age groups over 50 years old. It was found that the concentration was maintained more than 6 times the pre-vaccination level until 8 years following vaccination.
