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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: herpes zoster + investigational vaccine + vaccine  Related to the article below (Last Update: 7/8/2008)

Zoster vaccines not just for children anymore
AAP News (subscription) - Jul 1, 2008
Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration licensed the zoster vaccine for the prevention of herpes zoster in individuals 60 years of age and older. ...

Oneindia
New approach offers chance to finally kill herpes
Reuters India, India - Jul 2, 2008
... causes cold sores, HSV-2 causes genital herpes, while varicella causes chicken pox and returns in middle or old age as herpes zoster to cause shingles. ...
Research Points to a Permanent Cure for Cold Sores Discover Magazine
all 67 news articles »
?Madness of the trenches? flourishes Roy Parker
FayObserver.com, NC - Jun 25, 2008
When I brought up my experience with shingles, the virulent and terribly painful herpes zoster, grandchild of chickenpox, he told me some interesting ...
CDC Recommends Shingles Vaccine
Vaccine Rx (press release), DC - Jun 18, 2008
People age 60 and older should be vaccinated against shingles, or herpes zoster, a condition often marked by debilitating chronic pain, the Centers for ...
FDA Approves VELCADE(R) (Bortezomib) for Injection for Patients ...
FOXBusiness - Jun 20, 2008
... back pain and hypotension (each 13%), herpes zoster, nasopharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infection, myalgia and pneumonia (each 12%), muscle cramps ...TYO:4502 - OTC:CMTX
Treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome
SheKnows.com, AZ - Jun 30, 2008
Hepapressin, the generic name for Kutapressin, is an amino acid complex originally created to treat the virus herpes zoster. Years ago, Dr. Derek Enlander, ...
Vaccine lowers risk of shingles, reduces severity when it occurs
Lebanon Daily News, PA - Jun 25, 2008
Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, can strike at any age, but it usually affects adults after age 50. Each year more than 1 million Americans get ...
Management of Herpes Simplex Infections Reviewed
Medscape (subscription) - Jun 12, 2008
Unfortunately, confusion often arises because various dosing regimens are recommended for (1) each of the 3 available drugs; (2) HSV vs herpes zoster; ...
Most e-mailed stories
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX - Jun 23, 2008
For more information, go to www.cdc.gov/vaccines, click on "Vaccines and Preventable Diseases" and then on the "Shingles (Herpes Zoster)" link.

Tampa Tribune
What You Should Know About Shingles
Tampa Tribune, FL - Jun 20, 2008
Surprising, as there are an estimated 1 million cases of shingles - also called herpes zoster - in the United States each year. Anyone who has recovered ...
Source: Google News

A Vaccine to Prevent Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia in Older Adults -
MN Oxman, MJ Levin, GR Johnson, KE Schmader, SE … - New England Journal of Medicine, 2005 - content.nejm.org
... controlled trial of an investigational live attenuated Oka/Merck VZV vaccine ("zoster
vaccine"). Herpes zoster was diagnosed according to clinical ...

Varicella-zoster virus. -
AM Arvin - Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 1996 - pubmedcentral.nih.gov
... Investigation of varicella-zoster virus infection of ... after receiving a live attenuated
varicella vaccine. ... Diagnosis and therapy of herpes zoster ophthalmicus. ...

… polymorphism of polymerase chain reaction products from vaccine and wild-type varicella-zoster … -
P LaRussa, O Lungu, I Hardy, A Gershon, SP … - Journal of Virology, 1992 - pubmedcentral.nih.gov
... Investigation of varicella-zoster virus infection by ... Live attenuated varicella virus
vaccine. ... agents of varicella and herpes zoster; serologic studies with the ...

Younger Age at Vaccination May Increase Risk of Varicella Vaccine Failure -
K Galil, E Fair, N Mountcastle, P Britz, J Seward - The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2002 - UChicago Press
... In addition, our investigation raises the possibility that ... Varicella Vaccination:
Efficacy Trends and Effect on Herpes Zoster. ... (2005) Vaccine Effectiveness and ...

Varicella Mortality: Trends before Vaccine Licensure in the United States, 1970?1994 -
PA Meyer, JF Seward, AO Jumaan, M Wharton - The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2000 - UChicago Press
... Investigation and reporting of all varicella ... clinically distinguish varicella from
disseminated herpes zoster. ... safe and effective vaccine, preventing varicella ...

Frequencies of Memory T Cells Specific for Varicella-Zoster Virus, Herpes Simplex Virus, and … -
H Asanuma, M Sharp, HT Maecker, VC Maino, AM Arvin - The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2000 - UChicago Press
... will be sufficient to alter susceptibility to herpes zoster requires clinical
investigation and is ... a large-scale study of varicella vaccine in the ...

Generation of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and viral mutants from cosmid DNAs: VZV thymidylate … -
JI Cohen, KE Seidel - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the …, 1993 - pubmedcentral.nih.gov
... of ribonucleotide reductases of herpes simplex and ... Investigation of varicella-zoster
virus infection of ... LaRussa P. The incidence of zoster after immunization ...

Contacts with varicella or with children and protection against herpes zoster in adults: a case- … -
SL Thomas, JG Wheeler, AJ Hall - The Lancet, 2002 - Elsevier
... specific cell-mediated immunity, and leads to herpes zoster. ... risk factors for zoster,
and investigation of a ... of older adults, to protect them against zoster. ...

Seroepidemiology of varicella-zoster virus infection in Catalonia (Spain). Rationale for universal … -
L Salleras, ? Domi?nguez, J Vidal, P Plans, M … - Vaccine, 2000 - Elsevier
... it has been found that herpes zoster is less ... study of the varicella-zoster infection
carried out ... of susceptible adolescents requires prior investigation of VZV ...

LIVE ATTENUATED VARICELLA VACCINE -
AM Arvin, AA Gershon - Annual Reviews in Microbiology, 1996 - Annual Reviews
... The varicella vaccine may eventually reduce or eliminate herpes zoster, which is
a serious problem for elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Acronyms. ...

Source: Google Scholar
 
 

Herpes zoster, an investigational vaccine effective

 
 
An investigational shingles vaccine, Zostavax, developed by Merck & Co, reduced the total burden of pain and discomfort caused by shingles by 61 percent in a study compared the investigational vaccine to placebo in more than 38,500 men and women age 60 and older.
Zostavax also reduced by 67 percent the incidence of persistent nerve pain - the most frequent complication of shingles known as postherpetic neuralgia ( PHN ) - and reduced the incidence of shingles by 51 percent.

The Phase III Shingles Prevention Study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was a Department of Veterans Affairs ( VA ) study conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ( NIAID ) at the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) and Merck at 22 research sites across the United States over a period of more than five years.

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted to determine whether vaccination with a single dose of a live attenuated investigational vaccine, Zostavax, would decrease the incidence and/or severity of shingles and persistent nerve pain in men and women age 60 and older who had no previous history of shingles.

In the study, participants were randomized to groups given either Zostavax ( n=19,270 ) or a placebo ( n=19,276 ) and followed for the development of shingles for a median duration of 3.1 years.

Suspected cases of shingles were assessed by polymerase-chain-reaction ( PCR ) assay, virus culture and clinically by an evaluation committee consisting of five physicians with expertise in shingles.

All subjects with clinically diagnosed shingles were offered antiviral treatment ( Famciclovir ) when indicated or as appropriate and were offered standard-of-care treatment for pain.

The primary endpoint of the study was the burden of illness ( BOI ) caused by shingles over the first six months after shingles rash onset, a measure affected by the incidence, severity and duration of shingles-associated pain and discomfort.
Severity of pain was evaluated according to a "worst pain" score on a 0-to-10 scale using a validated questionnaire ( Zoster Brief Pain Inventory ) with a zero being no pain and a 10 being worst pain imaginable. Those in the study who did not develop shingles were assigned a score of zero. The BOI score represented the average severity of illness among all subjects in the vaccine or placebo group.

The study also evaluated the incidence of persistent long-term nerve pain after shingles in the group that received Zostavax compared to placebo.
PHN was defined as shingles-associated pain ( rated as greater than or equal to 3 on a 0-to-10 scale, using the Zoster Brief Pain Inventory ) that persisted or appeared more than 90 days after the onset of the shingles rash. The incidence of shingles in the group vaccinated with Zostavax compared to placebo recipients was also evaluated in the study.

The study showed efficacy with Zostavax on all measured endpoints compared to placebo: Zostavax significantly reduced the incidence, severity and duration ( burden of illness ) of pain and discomfort associated with shingles - by 61.1 percent ( p < 0.001 ); the overall BOI score was 2.21 for the vaccine group ( N=19,254 ) compared to a score of 5.68 in the placebo group ( N=19,247 ); Zostavax significantly reduced the incidence of persistent nerve pain after shingles - by two-thirds ( 66.5 percent ) ( p < 0.001 ); 27 cases of PHN occurred in the vaccine group ( N=19,254 ) compared to 80 cases in the placebo group ( N=19,247 ); Zostavax significantly reduced the overall incidence of shingles by 51.3 percent ( p < 0.001 ); 315 cases of shingles occurred in the vaccine group ( N=19,254 ) compared to 642 cases in the placebo group ( N=19,247 ).

In the study, the rates of serious adverse events, systemic adverse events and hospitalization were low.
During safety evaluations conducted during the first 42 days following vaccination, the number and types of serious adverse events were similar in the vaccine ( N=255/19,270 ) and the placebo groups ( N=254/19,276 ) and the distribution of serious adverse events by organ system were also similar between the groups.
Only five subjects had serious adverse events that were assessed by site investigators as possibly vaccine related, two in the vaccine group ( exacerbation of asthma and polymyalgia rheumatica ) and three in the placebo group ( anaphalactoid reaction, polymyalgia rheumatica and Good Pasture's syndrome ).
During this period, varicella-like ( chickenpox ) rashes at the injection site appeared more frequently in the vaccine group ( N=20/19,270 ) compared to the placebo group ( N=7/19,276 ). However, these rashes occurred at other sites at similar rates in the vaccine ( N=18/19,270 ) and placebo groups ( N=14/19,276 ).

In an adverse events sub-study that included more than 6,600 subjects from all 22 research sites, significantly more people in the vaccine group ( N=1,929/3,345 ) had one or more adverse events compared to the placebo group ( N=1,117/3,271 ) reflecting a greater frequency of injection-site adverse events in vaccine recipients.
The most frequently observed injection-site adverse events among those in the vaccine group were erythema ( redness ) ( 35.8 percent, compared to 7.0 percent with placebo ); pain or tenderness ( 34.5 percent, compared to 8.5 percent, with placebo ); swelling ( 26.2 percent, compared to 4.5 percent with placebo ); and pruritus ( itching ) ( 7.1 percent, compared to 1.0 percent with placebo ).
Reactions at the injection site were generally mild. No other adverse event at the injection site was observed in more than 2 percent of those in the vaccine group.

In the sub-study, significantly more people in the vaccine group experienced serious adverse events ( 1.9 percent ) than in the placebo group ( 1.3 percent; p=0.03 ); there were no significant differences in the distribution of serious adverse events by body system or event.
A subject-by-subject chart review of these serious adverse events revealed no clinically meaningful differences between the vaccine and placebo groups in the pathophysiology, nature, timing, intensity or outcome of these events.

Participants in the Shingles Prevention Study were enrolled between November 1998 and September 2001. Follow-up was completed in April 2004.
Participants had a history of varicella or had resided in the continental United States for at least 30 years.
Immunocompromised persons and those unable to adhere to assessments specified in the protocol were excluded from the study.
More than 95 percent of the subjects were actively followed to the end of the study.

Shingles is caused by the reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus - the same virus that causes chickenpox. Shingles may first appear as tingling, itching or pain on one side of the body or face. It then progresses to a blistering rash accompanied by pain in almost every case that varies in intensity and duration.
Shingles also can lead to complications, including persistent nerve pain ( PHN ) that can follow an episode of shingles. PHN can last for months or even years and can range from a tender, burning pain to a throbbing, stabbing pain.

Shingles can affect anyone who has had chickenpox - more than 90 percent of adults in the United States - and occurs most frequently in older adults. In fact, it is estimated that up to half of all people who reach age 85 will have developed shingles during their lifetime. Approximately 25 to 50 percent of shingles patients older than 50 years of age develop persistent long-lasting pain after shingles.
Estimates of the number of cases of shingles occurring each year vary from up to 800,000 to 1 million cases in the United States. The incidence of shingles is expected to increase as the population ages.

Source: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005
 
 
 
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