Claire and I both had our second shingles vaccinations this week. Both of us have felt as if we’ve been punched hard in the arm. Thankfully it is beginning to feel a little better. At least we shouldn’t get shingles, which I understand can be very unpleasant. Symptoms include a severe rash and in some cases it can even lead to blindness.
Shingles is also known as herpes zoster. It is a painful viral infection caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus remains dormant in nerve cells, sometimes for decades. If it reactivates later in life, it can produce shingles.
Shingles typically begins with pain, tingling, burning, or itching in a specific area of the body. Within a few days, a red rash develops, followed by clusters of fluid-filled blisters. These blisters usually appear on one side of the body or face, following the path of a nerve. The rash commonly affects the chest, abdomen, or back, but it can occur anywhere. Shingles is most common in older adults and in people whose immune systems are weakened by illness, medication, or stress. While the rash generally heals within two to four weeks, the pain can be severe. Other complications can include eye infections, hearing problems, facial paralysis, and, in rare cases, inflammation of the brain. Shingles affecting the eye is particularly serious and requires prompt medical attention.
What’s even better is that I read today that the shingles vaccine can offer protection against dementia. My mother suffered from dementia, albeit it didn’t become obvious until she was in her late eighties. It also seemed as though it was exacerbated by fading eyesight due to occular macular degeneration. A cousin on my mother’s side of the family also has dementia.
The study published in nature suggest that the shingles vaccination can reduce the risk of getting dementia by 20% and slow the progression of the disease if you do get it. That’s certainly well worth a sore arm in my book. I struggle to understand anti-vaccination brigade.