herpes

The Preventive Medicine Unit of the Hospital de Jerez has launched an active recruitment campaign for patients at risk of developing infection with this virus. Herpes zoster, colloquially called ‘culverin’caused by the varicella-zoster virus, is the cause of disabling disease, especially in immunosuppressed people and people over 60 years of age.

The instructions of the Ministry of Health and Consumption of February 2023 Vaccination indications expandeduntil then reserved for people with hematopoietic stem cell transplants, to cover all solid organ transplant recipients and those receiving certain immunosuppressive treatments.

He Preventive Medicine teamin coordination with the Hospital Pharmacy and the Nephrology Unit of the University Hospital of Jerez, has vaccinated 501 people in a few weeks of these groups in the health area. Specifically, 305 transplanted people and it is a pre-kidney transplant situation, in addition to 7 heart transplant recipients, 72 people who have received a liver transplant and one lung transplant.

Another 116 patients being treated with a group of drugs called anti-JAK2used in some rheumatic and skin diseases, completed the two doses of the first phase of vaccination against herpes zoster, which has been carried out without relevant incidents and in record time.

At the end of May, the Ministry of Health extended the anti-herpes zoster vaccination to other groups of especially susceptible patients, such as people living with HIV and certain patients with malignant blood diseases and with solid tumors being treated with chemotherapy. This coverage expansion phase, which will last for six months, is underway and fifty people have already been immunized in recent days.

What is herpes zoster?

Anyone who has had chickenpox is at risk of developing shingles. It is a disease caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV) and its incidence increases in people over 50 years of age. It has a low mortality, but its complications They constitute a major problem, especially in highly immunosuppressed people.

It is a painful skin rash which, generally, characteristically affects only one side of the face or areas of the body such as the thorax, neck and lower back. Specifically, the rash is usually located in the same area where the involvement of the previous chickenpox was more intense. Subsequently, this rash quickly forms blisterswhich end up disappearing after one or two weeks.

The Ministry of Health and Consumption of the Junta de Andalucía has launched a specific plan within its vaccination programfollowing the agreement approved by the Public Health Commission at the national level, with the objective of progressive planning of vaccination against herpes zoster in people with risk pathologies. In this way Andalusia adds to its vaccination schedule the recommendation of the vaccine against this virus, becoming one of the first autonomous communities to incorporate it.

The pattern consists of 2 doses, with an optimal interval between doses of at least 2 months, and it is administered intramuscularly and can be done in the same vaccination act with other vaccines such as COVID-19, pneumococcus or conventional influenza. A minimum interval of 4 weeks between the two doses may be considered in severely immunocompromised patients, according to medical judgment.

2023-07-12 07:47:05
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