Herpes Zoster in the Elderly: An Insight into Prevention

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Giulia Ellen Alves de
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Silva, Igor Marcelo Castro e
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: ID on line. Revista de psicologia
• Texto Completo: https://idonline.emnuvens.com.br/id/article/view/3732
• topic: Vaccine; Elderly; Herpes Zoster; Vacina; Idoso; Herpes Zoster

INTRODUCTION: Infection with Varicella zoster virus causes primary varicella infection. It can reactivate later in life and causes herpes zoster, which mainly occurs in the elderly.This article aimed to review aspects related to the prevention of herpes zoster in older people. METHODS:The study was carried out through a literature review using the keywords “Herpes Zoster”, “Elderly”, “Vaccine” in the MEDLINE, SciELO, BIREME databases, selecting articles published in Portuguese and English for the period from March 2022 to November 2022. Two vaccines are marketed to prevent herpes zoster: the live zoster vaccine and the non- live, recombinant zoster vaccine. Greater efficacy, slower decline in immunity and the possibility of use in immunocompromised patients justify the superiority of non-lived over lived vaccine. CONCLUSION: Herpes Zoster impacts quality of life, causing a reduction in activities of daily living and may lead chronic pain. It is necessary to implement public health policies to ensure the access of older people to the available vaccines and reduce the herpes zoster burden of illness.