Vaccines will provide shingles and whooping cough immunity

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Two new vaccines are now available to protect against shingles and whooping cough.
We're familiar enough with the flu, pneumonia and tetanus-diphtheria booster vaccines. But now there are two new vaccines available for healthy adults. The shingles vaccine protects against the varicella-zoster virus, which is also responsible for chickenpox. Fifteen per cent of those who have had chicken pox will go on to experience a reactivation of the virus in later life in the form of shingles, a painful condition marked by a line of blisters on one side of the body.

The shingles vaccine is called Zostavax and it is recommended for those over 60, so long as they do not have weakened immunity. The new whooping cough booster, Tdap, is important because the protection offered by the vaccine given in childhood wears off over time. The traditional vaccine often caused problems like fever when used as a booster - the new one is much less likely to do so.

Source
Harvard Men's Health Watch October 2006