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For all adults over the age of 60 and people over 16 with immune problems, the Superior Health Council (SHC) recommends a vaccine against Herpes Zoster, more commonly known as shingles. This can be read in a new advice from the SHC.
Bron: BELGIAN
Shingles, also known as zona, is a skin condition that mainly affects the elderly. The disease is caused by infection with the varicella zoster virus, one of eight herpes viruses. About a third of the population will be infected with the virus at some point. A vaccination is recommended for people over 60 years of age and people over 16 with immune problems.
A live attenuated vaccine (Zostavax) and a non-live, recombinant subunit vaccine (Shingrix) are registered in Belgium. The SHC recommends vaccination with the latter vaccine. It is also possible to administer the vaccine at the same time as the seasonal flu vaccine or the pneumococcal vaccine.
The HRG recognizes that the vaccine is expensive today and therefore proposes to take into account studies on the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine and the results of an evaluation by the Federal Knowledge Center for Healthcare (KCE). That evaluation is still ongoing and the results are expected later this year.