A zona vaccine seems to offer additional advantages
Cavan / Alamy images
The vaccination against herpes Zoster, better known as Zona, helps not only to prevent this painful infection; It also limits the risk of cardiovascular problems.
A new observation study of more than a million people shows that those who had an injection of zostavax vaccine were 26% less likely to die of heart disease or to feel a stroke, heart attack or heart failure, compared to people who had not been vaccinated, explains Sooji Lee at Kyung Hee University.
“We know that shingles cause inflammation in blood vessels,” she said. “Thus, by preventing infection, the vaccine can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.”
The zona occurs when the chickenpox virus, which causes chickenpox and then remains in the body after the symptoms have reactivated. This can happen when the immune system is weakened, such as during stress or chemotherapy periods. The zona causes a painful rash, which can sometimes be infected or leave a scar.
Although cardiovascular events are generally not listed as complications from Zona, scientists now know that it is linked to a risk of approximately 30% higher of stroke and a risk of 10% heart attack, especially in the following year.
To see if vaccination has mitigated this, Lee and his colleagues have collected data on 1,271,922 people aged 50 or over, collected between 2012 and 2024 by national health registers in South Korea. The researchers determined whether each person had a zostavax or not and checked the subsequent development of one of the 18 types of cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure, cerebral vascular accidents, thrombosis, arrhythmias and iscemia. The team has also studied other factors related to health such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, exercise levels and social habits.
Over an average monitoring period of six years, the risk of cardiovascular events after vaccination was 23% lower than that of non -vaccinated persons, explains Lee.
Risk reduction was even higher in men – with vaccination associated with a drop of 27% against 20% for women. The same goes for people under the age of 60, who had a reduction in the risk of 27% against 16% in the elderly. Rural residents underwent a reduction of 25% against 20% for those in urban areas, and individuals with low income showed a drop of 26% against 20% in higher employees. As for persons with obesity, their risk reduction has decreased as BMI increased.
For specific cardiovascular events, vaccinated people were 26% less likely to have a stroke, heart attack or heart failure, and 26% less likely to die of heart disease. The risk of coronary coronary disease, on the other hand, fell by 22%.
The advantages were the most pronounced two to three years after vaccination, then gradually decreased over the next five years.
The study “strengthens our confidence” that the vaccinations of zones have cut cardiovascular risks, probably by slowing down vascular inflammation caused by the zona virus, explains Galen Foulke at the Pennsylvania State University.
“The zona itself has a high morbidity because of the pain and post-herpetic neuralgia-a painful affection which can last years after the eruption of the areas,” he said. “But health systems around the world could find enormous savings in health care thanks to reducing cardiovascular morbidity by investing in the relatively cheap zoster vaccine.”
Although more research is necessary, scientists suspect that the vaccine helps indirectly reduce cardiovascular risks because it prevents zona, which can damage blood vessels and cause the formation and inflammation of clots, explains Lee.
Researchers first focused on the Zostavax live -virus vaccine rather than on the new Shingrix – a recombinant vaccine which contains only one viral protein rather than on the virus itself – because Zostavax has been available for longer, which means that there is more long -term data on its effects. However, they now turn their attention to Shingrix.
“Because it is more effective in preventing shingles, we believe that the recombinant vaccine can offer even stronger cardiovascular protection,” explains Lee.
Although the design of the study cannot prove the cause and the effect as a randomized trial, it allows researchers to identify risk associations through large populations. These large -scale data can reveal models that clinical trials could miss, explains Lee.
Subjects:
