If you haven’t already noticed, some retail pharmacies are starting to offer the Zostavax vaccine by prescription only. Zostavax is the vaccine that is used to prevent you from getting shingles (herpes zoster). However, before you run off to your physician’s office to get a prescription, stop and ask yourself a couple of important questions first!
Do I really need the Zostavax vaccine?
The target population for this vaccine is adults 60 years of age and older. This age group is targeted because they are more susceptible to becoming inflicted with shingles.
You are also at higher risk of developing shingles if you have a weakened immune system, had chickenpox when you were younger than 18 months, and were exposed to the virus while in your mother’s womb.
Even with these other risk factors in mind, the vaccine should be reserved for those older than 60 years of age because no safety or efficacy data are available for patients in the younger age groups. Since we don’t know how well it works or how safe it is for younger folks, why bother getting it if you younger than 60 years old?
If you’re younger than 60 years of age, I wouldn’t bother getting a prescription!
So, if you are 60 years of age or older, you still should be given the choice as to whether you think it’s important to get the Zostavax vaccine or not. To help you make this decision, I’ll layout the complications that can be acquired from getting shingles and the possible adverse reactions to the Zostavax vaccine.
Serious, but very rare complications that may arise from getting shingles are pneumonia, hearing problems, blindness, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), or death (rare is the key word here!).
The other less serious and more common symptoms of shingles are rash, acute pain, itching, nerve pain, fever, headache, upset stomach, chills and overall feeling of discomfort or fatigue. The pain related to shingles may last up to 90 days or longer in some cases.
The most common adverse reactions after getting the Zostavax vaccine are headache and itching, swelling, redness, pain, or tenderness at the injection site.
Now, the Zostavax vaccine is fairly new to the world of drugs -introduced to the market in 2006, it may be too soon still to write off the idea of Zostavax being free of serious adverse reactions. Long-term studies will have to be done down the road to evaluate how safe Zostavax truly is!
Knowing the complications of shingles are rare, I would hold off from getting the Zostavax vaccine until it has been out on the market a little longer. I’d rather see more clinical experience with Zostavax before I had it injected into me (that’s if I was older than 60 years of age!). That’s just me though…you’re free to do as you please, as we all know! In fact, where the adverse reactions appear to be quite mild so far, I can see why people would be at ease with getting the vaccine.
Does my insurance cover the Zostavax vaccine?
This is a great question to ask yourself and to find the answer to because the Zostavax vaccine runs somewhere around $200 if not covered by insurance! I’m pretty sure the only insurances that are covering it right now are certain Medicare Part D plans, but I’m willing to stand corrected if someone knows of other insurance companies that are willing to foot the bill.
It certainly will save you time and energy to first find out if your insurance covers the vaccine. Who wants to head to the doctor’s office to get the prescription and then to the pharmacy to have the prescription processed, only to find out it’s not covered…not I!
That just about covers what I have to say about the recent surge on the Zostavax vaccine. Please leave a comment below if you have anything to add or contact me at Cate@getpharmacyadvice.com.
And if you find yourself in a position where your insurance doesn’t cover a medication or if you do not have insurance at all, check out our FREE video course that will provide you with numerous tips on how you can save money on your prescription medications.
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My grandmother had 2 hip replacements, several heart surgeries, and 5 kids. She said the most painful thing of all though was shingles b/c she had the lingering nerve damage. I remember her crying it was so bad.
I had shingles when I was 15. Weird, I know, but then my younger sister had it too several years later. We had no long-term problems, but I will be getting the vaccine someday down the road when I’m 60+.