I'm really excited to show you this week's video I've teamed up with Public Health England
and we timed it to be released on European immunisation week
our goal for this video is to help explain to everyone the importance of the
shingles vaccine and hopefully increase its uptake amongst the elderly because
as we age were at higher risk of getting shingles and after the age of 70 were at
even higher risk of serious complications so without further ado let's begin the video
shingles is an interesting one it's caused by a virus called
varicella-zoster or herpes zoster but you don't actually catch it so
varicella-zoster is the virus that gives us chickenpox and when we recover from it
it lives in the nerve roots next to the
spine at this point it's dormant so it's symptomless and you don't know
you have it now many years later without any exposure to the virus it can
suddenly become active and cause the symptoms of shingles so you can't quite
catch shingles but if you have shingles you can give someone chickenpox
who's never been exposed to the virus and I hope that made sense "makes perfect sense to me"
shingles normally affects one side of the body and it stops dead in the middle
it's usually around your chest, tummy or upper face it often starts with
feeling generally unwell or having pain for two to three days you then get a red
rash followed by blisters which scab over after about two to three weeks the
pain usually lasts about two to four weeks but some people get a really nasty
nerve pain which we call postherpetic neuralgia or PHN for short and PHN
effects one in five people who are over 60 and this pain can last for months or
even years after the rash has completely disappeared there are other
complications associated with shingles so it can cause skin infections it can
cause inflammation of the front of the eye which can cause a loss of vision and
it can also cause weakness of the muscle which is supplied by the affected nerve
if there's one thing that pharmacists love more than medicines its scientific
studies and the data on the shingles vaccine is actually really good so I'm
gonna give you a quick breakdown and I'm gonna write it down for more impact but bear with me
okay, so since the vaccine was introduced in 2013 it's estimated
that it was 62% effective against shingles and also between 70-88%
effective against PHN now that's amazing because PHN is
probably the most common thing I hear patients complain about who have had
shingles and here's my last fact which I won't bother writing down between 2013
to 2016 GP visits for shingles and PHN fell by 35-55%
respectively in those aged seventy years old
the good news is that the shingles vaccine has a very good safety record and it only actually needs
to be done once at any time of the year now if you're 70 or 78 years old then
you're eligible for the free NHS shingles vaccine but if you missed it
and you're under 80 then fear not because you may still be able to have it done
please pause the video on this chart which shows who is eligible for
the free NHS shingles vaccine between the 1st of April 2018 to the 31st of March 2019
but despite such positive results the uptake of the vaccine has
actually reduced since the start of the program the uptake has reduced by 13% in
those aged 70 years and by 8.4% in those aged 78 years since
2014 and the final bit of bad news is that over 50,000 cases of shingles
happen in England and Wales each year in those aged 70 and above and
approximately 50 cases are fatal
I encourage everyone who is eligible to
contact their GP practice and get the shingles vaccine whilst you can because
it's the best way to avoid the disease and avoid
long-term complications that can develop from it and if you have any friends or
family who are 70 or over then please help spread the word share this video to
them show them this video or even inform them about this video so they can
hopefully get vaccinated and if you want more information then please read the description below
our population is ageing and as we get older the risk of
getting shingles and complications increase so immunisation is the best way
to protect yourself and remember the World Health Organisation slogan prevent, protect, immunise
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