This is a weird one. I got shingles about two years ago (when I was 37). It was pretty horrible. My boss who sat in the next office from me got it within two weeks of when I got it, which is a pretty odd coincidence.
When I talked to my doctor about all of this, her hypothesis was that there was probably some other virus which weakened our immune systems to the point where the dormant chicken pox virus could get out and travel up the nerve endings and break out. Her thinking was that as a result of kids getting vaccinated, we're actually not exposed to the virus a lot any more. She felt that as a result shingles was becoming more prevalent in adults because you're not generating as many antibodies.
Through all of this, my daughter who was three at the time, also broke out in slight bumps on her legs. She had been vaccinated against the chicken pox, so the bumps went away and never developed into anything like a full blown case. I remember when I was a kid and got the chicken pox it was pretty horrible.
My point is really that there are side effects to everything. I haven't seen a study of whether shingles is on the rise, so I don't know if my boss and I were just unlucky. My preference is to still vaccinate, but really I'd love to see that particular virus wiped off of the planet.
When I talked to my doctor about all of this, her hypothesis was that there was probably some other virus which weakened our immune systems to the point where the dormant chicken pox virus could get out and travel up the nerve endings and break out. Her thinking was that as a result of kids getting vaccinated, we're actually not exposed to the virus a lot any more. She felt that as a result shingles was becoming more prevalent in adults because you're not generating as many antibodies.
Through all of this, my daughter who was three at the time, also broke out in slight bumps on her legs. She had been vaccinated against the chicken pox, so the bumps went away and never developed into anything like a full blown case. I remember when I was a kid and got the chicken pox it was pretty horrible.
My point is really that there are side effects to everything. I haven't seen a study of whether shingles is on the rise, so I don't know if my boss and I were just unlucky. My preference is to still vaccinate, but really I'd love to see that particular virus wiped off of the planet.