Shingles vaccine

I had the shingles vaccine because I had shingles 3 times in my childhood, which is pretty rare. However, I had shingles again after I had the vaccine. I don't know whether the vaccine caused the new outbreak, but I do know that shingles persists in your nervous system and breaks out spontaneously. No-one gave me any advice on the efficacy, side effects or prognosis - it was just a stab in the dark (actually my shoulder).

I had the Zostavax vaccination several months ago when my GP had stocks again, as there had been a shortage here in Australia. It is offered free of charge to over seventy year old people.

I have had no side effects from, it apart from the initial soreness from the jab which lasted less than twelve hours.

Edit: Added link.

After watching two elderly neighbours suffer through bouts of shingles, I decided if the vaccine reduced the chances of that kind of suffering, it had to be worth it. I even paid for it myself. Both people had it on their face with eye involvement. They still have issues even now. No thanks

carol43 said:

I was offered the vaccination but refused. I wanted to know more about it before agreeing. Anybody else been offered and should I accept?

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Both my parents had shingles and it's something, it's really horrible, and I will do everything I can to avoid. You can only get shingles once you've had chicken pox after which the virus is in the body and it's a flair up of that virus that causes shingles. My wife's very elderly grandfather was so ill and distressed by the symptoms that he gave up wanting to live and died six weeks after the shingles flared up.

The vaccine contains a weakened chickenpox virus (varicella-zoster virus). It's similar, but not identical to, the chickenpox vaccine. Very occasionally, people have developed a chickenpox-like illness following shingles vaccination (fewer than 1 in 10,000 individuals). Not sure how adding more chickenpox virus when you already have it actually works but there you go.