Hey all, we alerted the Centers for Disease Control to this post and similar posts about the flu shot and shingles on Thanksgiving. One of their doctors, Carolyn Bridges, MD returned a statement in less than a week and here's what she had to say:
"Influenza vaccines contain either inactivated or killed virus or they contain a weakened form of influenza virus. Thus, they cannot cause shingles. Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox. Shingles is relatively common so it is possible that some cases of shingles may occur around the time of influenza vaccination, but that would be coincidental. There is no evidence that influenza vaccination leads to shingles. Influenza and shingles are caused by very different viruses."
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Hey all, we alerted the Centers for Disease Control to this post and similar posts about the flu shot and shingles on Thanksgiving. One of their doctors, Carolyn Bridges, MD returned a statement in less than a week and here's what she had to say:
"Influenza vaccines contain either inactivated or killed virus or they contain a weakened form of influenza virus. Thus, they cannot cause shingles. Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox. Shingles is relatively common so it is possible that some cases of shingles may occur around the time of influenza vaccination, but that would be coincidental. There is no evidence that influenza vaccination leads to shingles. Influenza and shingles are caused by very different viruses."
For more information, visit
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/default.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
December 5, 2008 - 9:36amThis Comment
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