Researchers have found that six months after people older than 50 test positive for COVID-19, especially if hospitalized, they are more likely to experience a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, which can cause shingles later in life.
The research was supported by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and published in the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases in May.
The research team from March 2020 to February last year studied nearly 2 million patients older than 50 who were diagnosed with COVID-19, and found that they had a 15 percent higher risk of getting shingles than those who did not have COVID-19.
Photo courtesy of GSK
Those who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 had a 21 percent higher risk of developing shingles, the research found.
The risk continued to increase until six months after the patients tested positive for COVID-19, the study said.
GlaxoSmithKline vice president in the US Temi Folaranmi said that it is important for medical personnel to know about the potential risk so as to provide them with treatment as soon as possible.
Older people face a higher risk of treatable diseases such as COVID-19 and shingles, he said, adding that “the research underlined the importance of taking precautions, such as vaccination, against these diseases.”
Shingles, also called herpes zoster, is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which stays in the body after a chickenpox infection.
Almost every adult older than 50 carries this virus, which can be activated when the immune system weakens with age.
People who develop shingles often experience painful rashes on their faces or on one side of their bodies for several days to several weeks.
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