Shingles Shot Clinic – Giant Pharmacy at Berks Encore Mifflin Center

Common Facts about Shingles / Shingrix:
• The CDC recommends that everyone 50 and older get Shingrix, even if
they had the earlier recommended vaccine Zostavax, or if they’ve
already had a bout of shingles.
• More than 99 percent of Americans over the age of 40 have been
exposed to the varicella-zoster virus, even if they don’t recall getting
chickenpox.
• The two-dose course of Shingrix is 97 percent successful at preventing
shingles in people in their 50s and 60s, and 91 percent for those in their
70s and older.
• Shingles is sneaky. It’s caused by the same virus as chickenpox —
varicella-zoster — which lays dormant for decades in the body, ready to
pounce. Our body gets it under control, but it never fully goes away and
lives in our nerves.
• In the U.S., 1 in 3 people will get shingles, usually after age 50, with
the risk of complications climbing sharply after age 60. Since the risk
rises with age, half of those who live to 85 will experience at least one
episode.
• Shingles’ most common symptom is an angry, blistering rash.
o 20% of people who develop that rash will also experience a
complication known as postherpetic neuralgia, a condition that
affects the nerve fibers and skin, causing burning, and sometimes
incapacitating, pain that can last for months (or even years) after
the rash disappears.
• If the Shingles rash is near the eye, it is one of the leading causes of
blindness.
• An important note: Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, Medicare enrollees with
Part D won’t have any out-of-pocket costs for vaccines that the CDC
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends for
adults, including the shingles vaccine, under the Inflation Reduction Act
of 2022.