People who suffer shingles as young adults can face serious health effects later in life, researchers have warned.
Having shingles between the ages of 18 and 40 can increase the risk of suffering a stroke in later years, a study out yesterday has claimed.
Professor Judith Breuer, of the University College London’s Division of Infection and Immunity, said she believes the findings from her study indicate that anyone with shingles, and especially younger people, should be screened for stroke risk factors.
Shingles is caused by a return of the chicken pox virus and is generally linked to a collapse of the immune system.
Professor Breuer’s comments come after her research ascertained that those who had shingles between the ages of 18 and 40 were more likely to suffer a stroke, heart attack or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in later years than people who had not had shingles.
However, people over the age of 40 who had shingles were more likely than those who had not to suffer a heart attack or TIA, but not a stroke.
The study, published in the online issue of Neurology, involved 106,600 people who had shingles and 213,200 people of similar ages who did not have shingles.
The participants’ records were reviewed for an average of 6 years after first being diagnosed with shingles, although some were reviewed for as long as 24 years.
Prof Breuer said after adjusting for stroke risk factors such as obesity, smoking and high cholesterol, people under 40 were 74% more likely to have a stroke if they had had shingles.
Her study found 40 people (0.21%) with shingles who went on to have a stroke. This compared with 45 (0.12%) of those who had not had shingles.
People under 40 were 2.4 times more likely to have a TIA if they had shingles and 50% more likely to have a heart attack.
Although the numbers were smaller among the over 40s, it was found that this group was 15% more likely to have a TIA and 10% more likely to have a heart attack if they had shingles.
Prof Breuer said better screening and treatment for stroke risk factors, including diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, could explain why older people are at lower risk than younger people of stroke, TIA and heart-related events following shingles.
“Anyone with shingles, and especially younger people, should be screened for stroke risk factors,” says Prof Breuer.
“The shingles vaccine has been shown to reduce the number of cases of shingles by about 50%. Studies are needed to determine whether vaccination can also reduce the incidence of stroke and heart attack.”
Neurology 2 January 2014 [abstract]
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