Note: Go to http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/May_10_02/Scandal15.htm to learn how the situation is more complicated than it is being presented here. - SM

Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

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July 5, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Shingles Vaccine Breakthrough"

Herald Sun (AU) (www.heraldsun.news.com.au) (07/05/02) P. 31

Researchers have found that a children's chickenpox vaccine may help prevent adults from getting shingles.  Scientists injected 53 cancer patients who were at risk of developing shingles with a heat-inactivated form of the varicella vaccine, and they found that only 13 percent of patients who were vaccinated developed shingles after a cancer-fighting blood transfusion, as opposed to 30 percent of the 56 cancer patients who were not vaccinated. The researchers, who reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggested that the vaccine may also prove useful in preventing shingles in healthy older adults.

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