Pacific Island Times February 2018 Vol 3 No. 2 | Page 6

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INSIGHTS
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Get the new Shingles vaccine
I
’ve got vivid memories of my childhood bout
with chickenpox. I remember lying misera-
ble in bed for days as I assume plenty of my
fellow first graders were doing at the same time,
given that the disease is highly contagious and
spread by coughing and other contact. There’s
a rash, that forms itchy blisters and fever,
tiredness and headaches are the minimum of
the misery for about a week. Com-
plications can include pneumonia
and inflammation of the brain. It’s
potentially much more severe if you
have the misfortune to contract it as
an adult.
In 1984, there was a real game
changer as the varicella vaccine,
also known as chickenpox vaccine,
became available. Medical studies
say one dose of the vaccine prevents
95 percent of moderate disease and
100 percent of severe disease. So
millions of kids are missing out on an
experience that has been a tradi-
tional rite of passage for centuries.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the chicken-
pox virus stays with you once it’s established.
The immune system keeps the virus at bay, but
later in life, usually in an adult, it can be reac-
tivated and cause a different form of the viral
infection called shingles (also known as herpes
zoster). That’s why the United States Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices suggests
that every adult over the age of 60 years get the
herpes zoster vaccine.
This came to be a matter of concern to me
about a decade ago when I learned that an
otherwise healthy friend of a friend had died of
complications of shingles. I wanted my herpes
zoster vaccine and wanted it now, but learned
that it was not routinely available on Guam.
Then in 2017 and out of the blue, I got a phone
call from a VA medical worker visiting from Ha-
waii who had spotted my name on a waiting list
for the vaccine. I was at the clinic with my sleeve
rolled up within ten minutes.
And now comes the really good news,
named Shingrix, which the pharmaceutical
firm GlaxoSmithKline intends to begin ship-
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ping this month. Large international trials have
shown that the vaccine prevents more than 90
percent of shingles cases, even at older ages.
The currently available shingles vaccine, called
Zostavax which I received, only prevents about
half of shingles cases in those over age 60 and
has demonstrated far less effectiveness among
elderly patients.
Various medical professionals are
describing this as a “sea change.”
According to a New York Times re-
port, Dr. William Schaffner, preven-
tive disease specialist at the Vander-
bilt University School of Medicine,
said, “This vaccine has spectacular
initial protection rates in every age
group. The immune system of a
70- or 80-year-old responds as if the
person were only 25 or 30.”
Controversy about vaccinations
has been around as long as vaccina-
tions. Smallpox once killed millions
annually, but the vaccination for it
has nearly eliminated this menace.
In its early days in the early 19th
century however it was met with
sanitary, religious, scientific and political objec-
tions.
The MMR vaccination against measles, mumps
and rubella is routinely given against these
other scourges, but in the late 90s, a report
published in a British medical journal claimed a
link between the vaccine and autism and bowel
disease. That report was later withdrawn by its
publisher.
My late mother, a Medical Service Corps of-
ficer during World War II, nursed her two sons
through chickenpox, measles and other child-
hood afflictions. She had absolutely no use for
the anti-vax crowd, which periodically came to
public attention over the years. If these vaccina-
tions had been available back then, we would
have shortly been in the doctor’s office rolling up
our sleeves.
Bruce Lloyd is a veteran journalist, who has
been a longtime resident of Guam and Saipan.
Send feedback to editor@pacificislandtimes.
com
FSM drops bluff on
Compact termination
FSM leaders are very smart and they know
what they’re doing. One thing for sure,
they always keep their people a priority in
every decision they make. Our leaders on
Guam need to reach out and take some
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