Shingles risk increased in people over 50 after COVID-19 diagnosis, says study – SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. People 50 and older were found to be at increased risk of developing shingles after a COVID-19 diagnosis, a new study found, marking the first time a large analysis has connected the painful infection to the disease which has now persisted for more than two years.

Researchers used a database to track nearly 400,000 people 50 and older who were infected for the first time between the first days of the pandemic and the early months of 2021 and compared findings against a cohort of nearly 1.6 million people who were not diagnosed with the disease.

The study, published in the journal Open Form Infectious Diseases, found those who tested positive for COVID-19 were 15% more likely to develop shingles, known as herpes zoster, compared to the control group. That risk was even more pronounced 21% higher for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

People vaccinated against shingles and COVID-19 were not included in the study. The research was conducted prior to the emergence of the virulent omicron variant, and it is unclear if the newer strain is associated with differing levels of shingles diagnoses.

We found that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 50-year-old individuals with a first-time COVID-19 diagnosis had a significantly higher risk of developing HZ (herpes zoster) than those never diagnosed with COVID-19, the study authors wrote.

Shingles is an infection that often manifests as a painful rash in a single stripe on one side of the body. It can also cause a rash on one side of the face, potentially affecting vision, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The rash includes blisters that scab over in about a week before clearing over the span of two weeks to a full month. Around one in three people in the United States develop shingles, the CDC said.

Anyone who previously had chicken pox has the potential to get shingles, especially later in life as the immune system weakens. That is because the virus that causes chicken pox, varicella zoster, lays dormant in the body after an initial infection and can reemerge later in life and cause shingles.

Researchers in the latest study said their findings suggested COVID-19 infection may trigger reactivation of the chicken pox virus, prompting shingles to form.

Previous studies hypothesized COVID-19s ability to disrupt the bodys T-cells, the part of the immune system that fights infections, is the reason for the diseases ability to cause higher rates of shingles infections.

A separate Brazilian study found a 35% increase in shingles diagnoses in the first months of the pandemic compared to the same periods in 2017 to 2019.

The scientists involved in the latest study said health professionals should consider that COVID-19 may be a risk factor for shingles, adding that maintaining recommended shingles vaccination among the 50 and older age group could blunt the impact of the overall increase in new infections.

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Shingles risk increased in people over 50 after COVID-19 diagnosis, says study - SILive.com