8 Comments
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Lesley Lawson's avatar

Excellent article, thanks

Jenn Dowd, PhD's avatar

Thanks, much appreciated!

Jennifer A. Newton-Savard's avatar

I’m turning 50 next month, so this news is excellent timing. I’ll be getting my shingles vaccine as soon as my doctor okays it. Thank you for this in-depth look at this study in Wales and answering the question about the newer vaccine.

Donja Darai's avatar

Thanks for the article! One question, if the effect on reducing dementia among women is going through the prevention virus reactivation, do you think that anti-viral drugs could help people that already have symptoms of dementia like amyloid plaques in their brain fluid? Do you know of any studies on this?

Jenn Dowd, PhD's avatar

Great question-- this very paper did a subanalysis on people who had shingles during follow-up and received anti-virals and did see some protective effect, so the mechanism is plausible! It looks like there are some other papers but not sure they have looked specifically at people already with symptoms. https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/trc2.12119

Dana A. Glei's avatar

Excellent article! Thanks for sharing it and your careful review of the science.

Jenn Dowd, PhD's avatar

Thanks Dana, much appreciated!

Alison's avatar

Thanks for the great article.