‘All I want for Christmas’ is the shingles vaccine, but it’s nearly impossible to find
A national shortage of a new vaccine to protect against the painful rash known as shingles is worsening, even as the manufacturer announced plans this week to boost deliveries.
Demand for the two-dose Shingrix vaccine has skyrocketed since it became broadly available in the United States in the spring, say pharmacists. The new vaccine provides much greater protection than an older, single-shot vaccine from a disease that affects 1 in 3 adults and can cause debilitating nerve pain that can last months, or even years. Demand is also surging because federal health officials recommended it last year for healthy adults at age 50 – a decade earlier than previous recommendations. People who have already had shingles, as well as those who received the old vaccine, or have had or are unsure if they have had chickenpox, are also urged to get it. Those recommendations took British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline by surprise, leaving it scrambling to keep up with demand, say company representatives.
Company officials estimate about 115 million people in the United States ages 50 and older are eligible for the vaccine. Shingles, a painful condition that causes blisters, occurs when the chickenpox virus resurfaces decades later. There are an estimated 1 million cases of shingles each year in the United States; the risk of the disease increases as people age.
“All I want for Christmas is for my pharmacy to get some Shingrix,” tweeted one woman this week.