Shingles vaccine. Yes or no?

[SOC]

My doctor said the vaccine has been out for about 4 years and has a good track record. That may be all well and good for a healthy patient, but we are not. Also, I can't imagine whom Dr. Vernon was referring to.

I think this is the difficulty for PWME working with uninformed GPs. In my daughter's case, my husband specifically asked the doctor if the chicken pox vaccine would be okay given our daughter's ME/CFS and was told that there are no problems with that vaccine, it's been given for years, yadda, yadda, yadda. They just don't get that what's good for everybody else is not necessarily good for us.

I wonder if Dr Vernon was speaking more specifically about flu vaccines, which are usually killed virus vaccines. I have a hard time imagining anyone who knows anything about ME/CFS suggesting PWME should intentionally be injected with a live (even attenuated) herpesvirus given how much trouble herpesviruses give us ordinarily.

 

[Ocean]

there is some question whether ME patients develop immunity from vaccines, so getting a vaccine may not do us any good.

I always get a bad reaction when I get a vaccine, and my personal choice is not to get any (when I asked my primary care doctor what to do about tetanas booster, she said I could even avoid that). Since there may not be any benefit, and I know there will be a potentially serious relapse.

Not everyone will want to make the same choice I make. This is an individual benefit:risk decision.

I've had bad vaccine reactions too and have made that same decision so far.

 

[slayadragon]

I've heard many, many stories of people whose CFS came on or greatly worsened shortly or soon after getting an adult vaccine. The stories that I've heard that vaccines can be problematic to us are convincing to me, while the arguments of "experts" are unconvincing to me. Personally, I would do everything in my power to avoid such vaccines.

Best, Lisa

 

[Shellbell]

Just to give my two cents worth, my regular doc and practitioners all went over the side effects (more like possible adverse reactions) of vaccinations and both told me to avoid all of them because of my ME/CFS. They also went on to warn against my own children having any further vaccines because of the genetic link.

 

[voner]

I was reading this thread and I want to clarify my comment about talk to Suzanne Vernon.

I was at a meeting in Denver are your two ago and someone asked a question about getting the flu vaccine. Dr. Vernon said that all the experts that she has asked have said to get a vaccine.

I think it's important to keep in mind ME/cfs people are very heterogeneous group.

You might consider asking the question to Dr. Vincent Racaniello, on his virology blog. I'm curious what his answer would be.

BEG: Personally, I stay away from the flu vaccine, but I did get a shingles vaccine. I know this make no sense to many people, but it's a personal decision and humans are not totally logical people.

 

[BEG]

voner, thanks for the additional information. If you don't mind, could you tell us how you tolerated the shingles vaccine?

 

[fibrodude84]

I have had shingles, maybe it kicked in my CFS. I'd consider the shingles vaccine if it helped CFS but I can't take live vaccines since I'm immunocompromised.