According to the U.S. researchers, kids who get vaccinated against chickenpox may have a lower risk of developing shingles.
After studying 170,000 children of age 12 and under who got Merck & Co Inc’s chickenpox vaccine between 2002 to 2008 found only 122 shingles cases or 1 case in 3,700 kids who got the vaccine.
Shingles is a painful recurrence of the chickenpox virus, which can lurk in the body for a life time. This infection starts usually with a rash on the face or body, and causes pain, tingling or itching.
HungFu Tseng, a research scientist and epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California says that the message to parents and pediatricians is: vaccinating your kids against chicken pox to reduce the risk of shingles.
Source: Reuters