Shingles vaccination – MAX Hotline

I would like to draw your attention to a disease that most have heard of, but which is otherwise quite unknown, namely shingles. It is a disease that mainly affects the elderly, so the number of patients is expected to increase in the coming years.
Anyone who has had chickenpox as a child carries the virus. If your resistance has decreased slightly – which is the case with the elderly – the virus can suddenly strike and manifest itself as shingles. The first sign is usually a skin rash, often in the ‘girdle’ area, but sometimes on the face or elsewhere.
Shingles causes a lot of nerve pain, which can best be described as HARD pain. Ordinary painkillers do not help, only ‘opiates’ take the sharpest edges of the pain. It usually takes about 4 weeks for the rash and pain to disappear.
I got shingles 2 months ago, unfortunately an XL version, which has progressed into the more or less chronic Post Herpetic Neuropathy. This affects approximately 10 percent of patients. I was – with emphasis on laundry – an active woman of 76, but now I am in severe pain day and night and because of the medicines I have become a zombie who spends much of the day in bed.
I wondered why there is so little media coverage of shingles and why there is no vaccine. Well, a vaccine has recently appeared on the market (Shingrix). This is not free, but costs about € 190. In England, Germany, Belgium and America, among others, this vaccine is free, but here the ‘oldies’ can suffer for at least a month and take medicines for a multiple of this amount.
Despite the price, I recommend everyone over 70 to get vaccinated. Shingles is a disease you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy!