Scared into a shingles vaccination

“You want to get a shingles shot?” my pharmacist asked me when I stopped by for a flu shot.

Why? I asked, is it going around?

No more than usual, she said, but it’s extremely painful if you get it. Ask your doctor about it.

I remembered a friend who had shingles during a couple of years I lived in California and the memory was not pleasant. I just remembered it being a rash. I was already scheduled for a visit with my eye doctor and a doctor is a doctor so I asked him about it. He said do it. In fact, he encouraged me to do it.

When I returned to my pharmacist, however, she had bad news for me. Unlike the flu shot, which Medicare pays for, I would have to pay for the shingles shot myself, $230. She had called my drug supplier, Aetna, and Aetna said it wouldn’t pay for it.

Why does it cost so much? One person told me it was scarce which is why it’s so costly.

“It’s costly because it’s a brand new vaccine,” she said. “It was just licensed in 2006. There was no shingles vaccine before that. But it’s not scarce.”

Who sets the price?

Apparently it’s whoever you purchase your health care from. At least $230 is the price set by Super Value, the parent company of Albertson’s health clinics, she told me. It was the same price last year.

We get a few cases a month but last year there was one death in the state as a result of complications from shingles. My pharmacist hasn’t heard of any cases here yet this fall.

I looked shingles up in my standby doctor book, The American Medical Association Family Medical Guide, and the pharmacist gave me a sheet of information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 1 million people a year in the U.S. get shingles. It’s caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same virus that causes chicken pox. Only someone who has had chickenpox can get shingles because the virus stays in your body and can cause shingles many years later. It is not known what reactivates the dormant herpes zoster virus.

The new shingles vaccine is made 17 times stronger than the dosage given to children for chickenpox. Kids are given two shots of chickenpox virus but adults need only one.

Shingles consists of groups of blisters on the skin almost anywhere on the body but mostly on the torso and face. Symptoms are a severe burning pain in the affected area that arrives before the blisters and does not stop when they erupt. The pain often lasts for weeks after the blisters disappear.

They generally leave after about seven days but they leave scars like those caused by chickenpox. If you get it on your face, you could get temporary facial paralysis, or corneal ulcers.

There are drugs that speed recovery but once the rash is fully developed, about all you can do is apply calamine lotion and take aspirin.

One of my daughters gets her health care from a different supplier than I do, Group Health, so she called them to inquire about price and availability. It turned out Group Health pays for shingles shots as long as the person is referred by a doctor.

Anyway, I got the shot.

All that talk about pain and scars and the like scared me into it.

Think about it. Ask your doctor and your drug provider.

– Adele

Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA., 98340.