The shingles vaccination appears to reduce the risk of dementia. This is the conclusion of a working group led by Markus Etting of the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health based on data from unvaccinated people in Wales and those vaccinated with the live Zostavax vaccine. Like the team in beta It was reported that people in the group with a vaccination rate of about 50 percent were approximately one-fifth less likely to develop dementia than the unvaccinated comparison group. The finding supports the hypothesis that the chickenpox virus, which causes shingles, is involved in the development of dementia.
Dementia is a growing problem worldwide and there is still no effective treatment for dementia. But for some time, there has been suspicion that infectious diseases could be involved in some dementias. several Studies have provided evidence of thisHerpes viruses, particularly HSV-1 and the chickenpox virus, are associated with an increased risk of dementia. These viruses infect nerve cells and in some cases can cause encephalitis. They also appear to damage the brain in subtle ways, contributing to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Herpes zoster is a late effect of a chickenpox infection, in which the virus becomes active again and causes a painful rash. The Zostavax vaccine cuts the incidence of shingles by about half. In Wales, the vaccine is only offered to people born after September 2, 1933. This deadline allowed the working group to do its analysis. In the study, the team compared people who were born the week before the deadline with those whose birthday was the week after. In the latter, the vaccination rate was 47 percent, previously almost zero.
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