Corona: Risk of shingles increases after Covid infection

Created: 08/12/2022, 02:00 p.m

By: Judith Brown

After a corona infection, some patients develop shingles.

This is due to the weakening of the immune system.

Anyone who becomes infected with Corona can later suffer from long-term consequences such as Long Covid.

Infection with the virus can also have other consequences.

There is an increased risk of developing shingles after Covid-19, especially in patients over 50 years of age.

This is shown by the results of an analysis of health data carried out by US researchers.

Corona: Risk of shingles increases after Covid infection

If the immune system is weakened, the chickenpox pathogen varicella zoster can break out in the form of shingles.

(Iconic image) © Science Photo Library/IMAGO

As scientists led by Amit Bhavsar from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline found out in their study published in the specialist journal "Open Forum Infectious Diseases", the immune system is weakened after a corona infection.

If the immune system is weakened, the chickenpox pathogen varicella zoster can also break out in the form of shingles.

The pathogen belongs to the human herpes viruses.

Anyone who has had chickenpox as a child carries the virus throughout their life, as it settles permanently in the body after an infection.

As long as the immune system is not weakened, you don't have to notice anything.

For their study, the researchers evaluated data from 400,000 people.

These were formerly corona infected people who were 50 years or older.

They had not been vaccinated against Corona or chickenpox and had not suffered from shingles in the past.

Their data was compared to a control group consisting of 1.6 million people matched for age, gender and risk factors.

Unlike the other people, you have not suffered from Covid-19 disease.

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The risk of shingles can be reduced by vaccination against chickenpox

After the scientists controlled factors such as age, gender or other known prior risks for an outbreak of shingles, they came to the conclusion that the risk of shingles after a corona infection was 15 percent higher than in the comparison group.

According to this, around 8.2 patients per 1000 people developed shingles among those who had recovered from Covid, compared to only 6.8 people among those who were not infected.

In patients who had to be hospitalized because of Corona, the risk was even increased by 21 percent.

The scientists see the reason for the outbreak of shingles in the weakening of the immune system by the corona virus.

Finally, the number of immune cells is reduced after an infection.

In addition, different types of T-cells are affected.

The white blood cells normally serve the immune defence.

Getting vaccinated against chickenpox early can reduce the risk of developing shingles.

However, only in people who have not had chickenpox.

Anyone who has had it already carries the virus and cannot get rid of it through vaccination.

The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) therefore recommends vaccination against chickenpox, especially for small children.

In the past there have also been cases in which people developed shingles after a corona vaccination.

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.