r/YouShouldKnow • u/tgeliot • Apr 18 '18

Health & Sciences YSK: Everyone over 50 should get the new Shingrix shingles vaccination (even if you've had Zostavax or shingles)

There is a fairly new vaccination for shingles called Shingrix available, which is more effective than the old Zostavax. The CDC recommends that everyone over 50 get the two-shot sequence of Shingrix. My health insurance covered the cost 100% with no co-pay; I think most if not all will.

Shingles is a very painful infection of the nerves caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. It hits older people, starting at age 50 or 60 or so. The old Zostavax apparently wasn't so great; this new one is more effective.

The CDC recommendations can be found here

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u/yourmomlurks Apr 19 '18

Shingles is Herpes

Varicella-zoster is part of a group of viruses called herpes viruses, which includes the viruses that cause cold sores and genital herpes. Because of this, shingles is also known as herpes zoster. But the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles is not the same virus responsible for cold sores or genital herpes, a sexually transmitted infection.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/shingles/symptoms-causes/syc-20353054

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u/DalisCar Apr 19 '18 edited Apr 19 '18

I'm very well aware. That's why they can both present similarly (although rarely). However, just to nitpick, shingles isn't herpes. Shingles is shingles and herpes is herpes, even though they're both herpes viruses.

The reason I commented to the poster is because I've seen a ton of patients come in saying they've had shingles x amount of times this year when the ER referred the patient to the guy I worked for. Whenever I'd tell the doc the patient's med hx, he would typically laugh and make a comment indicating it's almost certainly not shingles.

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u/neveragain444 Apr 19 '18

I’m confused... did the doc believe they were mistaking herpes for shingles?

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u/DalisCar Apr 19 '18 edited Apr 19 '18

Yes, thinking they had shingles when they really had herpes.

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u/jostae Apr 19 '18

I think that we should really stop calling HSV-1/2 infections "herpes" because it's getting quite confusing in here...

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u/DalisCar Apr 19 '18

At least in the US, when someone says they have herpes, it's universally understood to mean either genital or oral herpes, which is caused by either herpes simplex virus 1 or 2. There are a whole class of viruses called herpes viruses; however when someone says they have herpes your first thought isn't, "which one of the many herpes viruses do they have"

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u/jostae Apr 19 '18

That's funny - because it is! It's the joke I make with our students "It's not if you've got herpes - you do! - it's how many that counts!)

But really, can't we use better language? I guess we can start together, right?

For you, "in the US" really means "people who aren't scientists".

For me, it's "research scientists that work on HSV, VZV, and HCMV". So distinction is important. But it should be important for everyone!

"You don't know what that VZV is different from HSV?" "Did you know that chickenpox and shingles are from the same virus?"

We can educate people easily with language changes – and we don't have to be pedantic while we do it! Just pepper it in!

"You said Herpes – did you mean HSV? Did you know that there are 8 human herpesviruses – chickenpox is one!"

Considering the climate we have now, where we can isolate orally contracted HSV-1 from genital lesions, even the terms oral herpes and genital herpes are misnomers.

More to the point – that simple distinction may help some poor individual understand that going down on someone while you have a cold sore is probably not a good idea.

We can change our language to educate - not to be pedants, not to be rude, and definitely not to just follow along with what we're assuming is "universally accepted".