https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/20/shingles-vaccine-approval/
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a second shingles vaccine, giving pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline a go-ahead to market Shingrix in the United States.
The FDA approval marks the second regulatory green light for the vaccine in a week's time. Last Friday Shingrix was approved for sale in Canada. Regulatory filings are also in the works for the European Union, Australia, and Japan, GSK said.
The vaccine offered 98 percent protection in the first year and that protection remained at 85 percent or higher three years after vaccination — stronger protection than the only other shingles vaccine on the market, Merck's Zostavax.
GSK has been keenly awaiting the FDA's ruling, eager to get to market a vaccine analysts estimate could reach $1 billion a year in sales by 2022.
Also at FiercePharma and The Pharma Letter.
Wikipedia's entry for shingles (aka herpes zoster).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JeanCroix on Tuesday October 24 2017, @04:01PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by corey on Tuesday October 24 2017, @11:31PM
I had shingles in my early 20s and it wasn't that bad. Worst thing was quarantining myself from work and uni. Made me realise I was working too hard and compromising my immune system.
Its not that common and I wouldn't be thinking about a vaccine. Just more money for big pharma.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:18PM (5 children)
Vaccines are just another tool of the violently imposed monopoly. They dope the vaccines with mercury to dumb down the sheeple. What we need are a series of contracts that allow humans to naturally evolve into the most optimal system which will enable their own immune systems to fix any medical problem. Broken bones? No problem for those who drink their milk. Lost a finger? Eventually we'll evolve regeneration so that will be a couple of weeks inconvenience at most.
If you do actually require the services of a medical professional then you should really question your life choices.
PS: I apologize if my invocation of "sheeple" caused your local area to be invaded by subterranean creatures.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:48PM (1 child)
Oh... well... I guess it's all right then. The ritual wasn't terribly hard to repair, and they're back asleep now. I guess just don't do it again.
It would be very kind of you, however, to, uh, compensate us for the mercury we had used to inject the sheeple with while the ritual was being repaired.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:04PM
I don't recall contracting with you before, do you have a signed agreement from one of my partners? If not piss off or I'll sic my contractually obligated dobermans on you.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday October 24 2017, @05:52PM
Goddamn, Poe's law overload!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:53PM (1 child)
Microsoft does not make vaccines.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:51PM
I dunno, extensive use of their operating system has definitely helped me avoid some serious STDs!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:21PM (6 children)
my vax for shingles was: getting shingles as a kid.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 24 2017, @06:27PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles#Prevention [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:50PM
"Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ACIP recommended the vaccination of adults regardless of a previous episode of HZ."
surprise, surprise. the vaccine probably has a kill feature embedded in it. 5-10 years after the "shingles vacine" and you die of some very natural looking cause. can't have old people hanging around too long.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:06PM (3 children)
Never anywhere near as simple as that, unfortunately.
If everyone did that, a new form of shingles would quickly materialise (it would have to, in order to survive, and when it did it would have fresh hosts everywhere it went, so it would thrive).
As humans, we have "cured" / eliminated precisely two diseases in all of recorded history. One in humans, one in cows.
We now think that the cow-one is making a comeback, having survived out of medical reach long enough to mutate.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:17PM
The other one is just itching to be used as a bioweapon.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:29PM (1 child)
Do you have data wrt shingles in places/time when nobody got vaccinated? It should have mutated like crazy. But the symptoms and the general reaction stayed the same. Hm.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday October 24 2017, @09:34PM
Why would it mutate when it can infect the next human without having to change a single gene?
Mutations occur all the time anyway, but would rarely be able to compete against a successful (i.e. popular) infection. Remove the popular infection, and the minority, random mutations get free-reign (like flowers growing through a weeded-garden). Only ONE of them need be infectious (part of which it inherits from it's predecessor) and unvaccinated-against and you have a whole new condition spreading through non-immune hosts without any serious competition.
Mutations are always around anyway, but certainly evolutionary pressures keep them in check most of the time until a clear path aids their promotion to full-blown epidemic.
To quote one article, though (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-shingles-expert.html?pagewanted=all):
"Q: You mentioned that varicella-zoster virus has been around for thousands of years. Has it changed much over that time in the way that other viruses — H.I.V., for example — change or mutate?
A: ******There’s no evidence that varicella-zoster has gotten more or less potent over the years********, and we also know that it changes at a much, much lower rate than H.I.V. The H.I.V. makes a lot of mistakes when it replicates or divides; varicella-zoster virus is much less error prone in replication. This makes it much easier to develop an effective vaccine, compared to trying to make a vaccine against a virus like H.I.V. that mutates very, very rapidly. The vaccines we have for chickenpox and shingles work partly because the virus cannot escape the immune system’s response to the vaccine, whereas with H.I.V. that’s much more likely to occur. It also makes varicella-zoster virus infections easier to treat because if you develop an antiviral medication, the virus is less likely to become resistant. With H.I.V., it is common to have virus that resists treatment."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:52PM (2 children)
Maybe parents who will not vaccinate their children should be able to be given this and other adult vaccines?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:53PM (1 child)
Drat! Meant to say SHOULD NOT be able to be given this and other vaccines.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:28PM
Well what if I maybe had a better response?