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Shingles vaccine for older adults gets FDA approval
"This vaccine gives health-care providers an important tool that can help prevent an illness that affects many older Americans and often results in significant chronic pain,"
- Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
Washington, DC - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first vaccine to prevent shingles, a painful virus believed to strike one in five adults at some point in their lives, particularly the elderly.
More than 1 million Americans each year contract shingles, a condition related to chicken pox. Shingles can cause severe pain that lasts for weeks, months or even longer. Outbreaks can appear decades after chicken pox and are marked by blistering, which can lead to sometimes permanent scarring.