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.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS