The consistency of shingles and its significance for health monitoring.

Accurate estimation of monitored populations is essential for epidemiological study. Many countries do not have systems of patient registration and routine disease surveillance is thereby hindered. We studied the incidence of shingles over time and investigated the hypothesis that the incidence is consistent and could be used as a proxy for estimating the monitored population.

The incidence of shingles and its implications for vaccination policy.

A vaccine is now available to prevent varicella-zoster infection, but its place in routine preventive care is not yet determined. The age specific incidence of shingles was examined separately by gender and age groups (15-24, 25-44, 45-64, 65-74 and 75 years and more) over the years 1994-2001. These incidence data were applied to national available data for the UK on current life expectancy to calculate the risk of shingles infections at varying ages.