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FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
Shingles (herpes zoster)
Why vaccinate adults against shingles?
- Shingles causes a painful, blistering rash. Its most common complication is post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), a long-lasting, hard-to-treat pain.
- About one in five people who get shingles develops PHN, which diminishes quality of life and functional capacity to a degree comparable to congestive heart failure, heart attack, type II diabetes, or major depression.
- The lifetime risk of developing shingles is estimated to be about 30 percent.
- As our population ages, we can expect the absolute number of shingles cases to increase – about 98 percent of US adults have had chickenpox and are, therefore, at risk for shingles.
View CDC immunization recommendations
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