Jaw-dropping results
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in an interview that “as someone who is not a vaccinologist, the declines in deaths, let alone hospitalizations, were jaw-dropping. I hadn’t really seen a synthesis of the impact of one and two doses.”
She said the declines in zoster among young people were interesting. The big question, she said, is what impact this may have for shingles infections in middle-aged adults over time, since chickenpox and shingles are caused by the same virus.
Dr. Marrazzo also noted the economic savings calculations.
“It’s such a cheap intervention. It’s one of the best examples of how a simple vaccine can affect a cascade of events that are a result of chronic viral infection,” she said.
There are also messages for the current debates over COVID-19 vaccinations.
“For me, it is further evidence of the profound population-level effect safe vaccines can have,” Dr. Marrazzo said.
The authors and Dr. Marrazzo report no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.