Shingrix vaccine linked to lower risk of heart disease — STAT News
Oxford researchers have identified a link between vaccination against shingles with Shingrix and a lower risk of heart disease. As STAT News reports, people who received Shingrix were less likely than unvaccinated people to experience heart attacks, strokes, or heart failure.
What is known about the vaccination
Shingrix is a recombinant vaccine for the prevention of shingles. This is a painful and sometimes severe manifestation of the chickenpox virus that can occur at an older age. There had previously been signals of possible cardiovascular benefits from vaccination with this product.
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The researchers sought to determine whether the association could be explained by other factors. In particular, vaccinated people may have been healthier from the outset or had better access to medical care. Such circumstances can affect the results of observational studies, which by themselves do not prove a causal relationship.
Preliminary data on dementia
This is the same group of researchers that previously linked Shingrix to lower dementia rates. The vaccine is planned to undergo further evaluation for its possible impact on cardiovascular diseases. For now, the results indicate an association between vaccination and a lower risk of heart disease, rather than a proven direct protective mechanism.
