LONDON, Feb 1, (PRINTWORDS NEWS) Here is some good news for the senior citizens in Britain. The Department of Health of the United Kingdom has declared that the vaccine for shingles would now be made available for everyone in the state, that is, for everyone of and above the age of 70, and below 80. According to the Department of Health, the decision had been taken after the Government’s independent committee recommended it. In fact, it had been decided that the vaccine would be made available for about 4 million of the residents of the state sometime later this year. However, the idea was entirely subject to the signing of a cost-effective deal, keeping in mind the fact of the recession that has left the country economically much under constraint.
The vaccine has been recommended for by the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization. It became imperative for the Government to agree to the recommendation after an act was passed under the NHS constitution. However, it was mandatory only so long as a cost-effective vaccination could be invented.
Shingles is a painful disease that can result in debilitation. It is caused by the same virus as that of chickenpox. It occurs when that particular virus attacks again, a rare condition, because chicken pox generally does not recur in anyone. For the most part, the virus responsible for causing chicken pox does not die out completely, but becomes dormant. It recurs only in case the person concerned suffers from a low immunity system, something that naturally happens as one gets on in age.
Chicken pox mostly occurring in children, shingles is generally known to happen to adults, and that too pretty rare, with only about one adult out of four suffering from it. People suffering from the disease break out in rashes and blisters, generally pretty painful. The illness generally strikes in the nerve areas. In older men and women, it is the most painful and also the most severe. It can cause permanent scarring, sight loss and can even lead to death.
An estimate shows that almost 50,000 elderly people are struck with the disease every year in the United Kingdom. However, this number can even stretch to 250,000. Due to the debilitating condition that it imposes, in most cases, it leaves the elderly incapable of taking care of themselves.
Following the passing of the bill that made the vaccination available for the senior citizens, Gillian Merron, the Minister of Public Health of the United Kingdom expressed his happiness. He commented that the bill was an important one, as shingles is a rather serious illness, and can be especially harmful to people advanced in age.
The news also comes as a ray of hope for Nigel Scott, a member of the Herpes Virus Association. He had been a string advocate of the measure for quite some time. He hopes that the introduction of the vaccination would be likely to reduce the occurrence of the illness in half. However, he claims, it would have been better if the age of receiving the vaccination had been reduced to sixty, or even lower, if possible.
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