Do I need to measure my chickenpox antibodies before getting the shingles vaccine?
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Just as having had the chickenpox vaccine does not guarantee protection against shingles, neither does having had the disease, and therefore an antibody response already present in the body. Contracting the herpes zoster virus as an adult can in fact give shingles as a primary infection, but it can also awaken a previous endogenous infection that is still present in our nerve ganglia. Checking for the presence of antibodies says absolutely nothing about the possibility of this occurring, i.e. being immunized or not. Dosing the presence of antibodies against the chickenpox virus would therefore only be wasted resources, a bit like dosing antibodies against Covid: it is information that says nothing about the possibility of contracting the disease. For this reason it remains advisable, in the categories for which it is recommended, to undergo vaccination against herpes zoster as adults.
Chicken pox
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Shingles
*Michele Conversano is director of the Prevention Department of the Local Health Authority of the province of Taranto
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