The shingles vaccine in use today has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and heart failure, according to a study of more than 70,000 people who received either the current vaccine or an older formulation1. The results were published today in Nature Medicine. The findings are 'particularly exciting' because they are more robust than those from previous work2 on the heart-protective effects of shingles vaccination, says Emily Rayens, an epidemiologist who specializes in vaccine development at the health-care provider Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California. Still, more work is needed to confirm whether the jab truly lowers the risk of cardiovascular events. 'We cannot definitively conclude that there is a causal link,' adds Rayens, who was not involved in the study. Shingles is a painful rash condition that is caused by varicella zoster, the same virus that causes chickenpox. It occurs when the virus reactivates in the body later in life, most often in people over the...
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