Shingles Around Chemo Patients

Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus the same virus that causes chickenpox.

Shingles around chemo patients. Shingles varicella zoster vaccine. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body it most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the right side of your torso. A person with weak immunity who has been around someone with chickenpox should call the doctor right away. People newly diagnosed with cancer particularly blood cancers and those treated with chemotherapy for cancer have a greater risk of developing herpes zoster shingles according to a new study.

Avoid if you re undergoing chemo or radiation generally the vaccine for shingles is given to adults age 60 or older who ve had chicken pox to prevent shingles or to lessen the severity of shingles. This vaccine is given to adults age 50 and older who have had chickenpox or shingles in the past to help prevent shingles or make symptoms of shingles less severe. Secondary infections and certain drugs such as those administered during cancer chemotherapy can both cause a person to become immunocompromised as can high doses of radiotherapy. Shingles patients around cancer patients.

But among patients with solid tumors the greater risk was largely associated with receiving chemotherapy treatment rather than with the cancer itself the researchers said. Cdc recommends that healthy adults 50 years and older get two doses of the shingles vaccine called shingrix recombinant zoster vaccine separated by 2 to 6 months to prevent shingles and the. Name is xxxxxxx 51 year old obese patient weight around 560 on lisinopril flouresimide. Shingles is a reactivation of the herpes zoster virus in patients who previously had chicken pox.

Thus shingles can often be a side effect of cancer therapies and in severe cases it can seriously compromise the wellbeing of the patient. Shingles is a very common disease in older adults and occurs when the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox is reactivated. Liu and her colleagues hoped to better understand which cancer types make a patient more vulnerable to shingles and whether the risk comes more from chemotherapy related immune suppression or the cancer itself. What everyone should know about shingles vaccine shingrix shingles vaccination is the only way to protect against shingles and postherpetic neuralgia phn the most common complication from shingles.

Reactivation may occur at a higher frequency among patients with a suppressed immune system.