TY - JOUR T1 - Vaccination of older adults against herpes zoster is safe and effective JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - e43 LP - e43 DO - 10.1136/eb-2012-101138 VL - 18 IS - 5 AU - Stephen K Tyring Y1 - 2013/10/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/18/5/e43.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Gagliardi AM, Gomes Silva BN, Torloni MR, et al. Vaccines for preventing herpes zoster in older adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;10:CD008858. The problem addressed by this study is that older individuals, for example, those over 60 years of age, are more likely to develop herpes zoster (HZ) than younger people. Older adults are far more likely to develop severe complications of HZ, especially postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Gagliardi and colleagues reviewed eight randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving 52 269 participants. By focusing on RCTs and assessing the risk of bias in these studies, the authors concluded that vaccination against HZ is safe and effective. The risk of HZ was less compared to placebo: risk ratio (RR) 0.49 (95% CI 0.43 to 0.56), with a … ER -