A new study evaluated the effect in England of the first three years of the chickenpox vaccination program on the risk of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia.
In 2013, a vaccination program against Herpes zoster (chickenpox, shingles, postherpetic neuralgia) was introduced in England for adults aged 70 years to prevent shingles and postherpetic neuralgia.
In this study, researchers extracted data from the Royal College of General Practitioners Primary Care Network on visits to patients aged 60 to 89 for chickenpox and postherpetic neuralgia. The study, carried out with public funds, was published in the journal The Lancet Public Health.
To do this, they identified individual data on vaccinations. Then, they related them to the estimated vaccination coverage for the vaccination and to the consultations. Several search criteria were used to assess the consequences: age, region, sex, period and availability of the vaccine.
Very interesting results
The analysis focused on more than three million people who consulted their general practitioner over three years. As of August 31, 2016, the vaccine coverage against shingles in the population over 65 years varies between 58% for the recently targeted cohorts and 72% for the first cohort vaccinated.
During the first three years of vaccination follow-up on initially targeted cohorts, the incidence of shingles decreased by 35% and postherpetic neuralgia by 50%.
The shingles vaccination program in England had a population impact equivalent to approximately 17,000 fewer herpes zoster episodes and 3,300 fewer postherpetic neuralgia episodes in 5.5 million people.
These results are particularly interesting for the prevention of shingles and in particular of postherpetic neuralgia, a chronic disease which is very debilitating and very difficult to treat.
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