Specialist Pain Doctors Call For Free Shingles Vaccine For Over-65s

Specialist pain doctors are calling for the shingles vaccine to be free for everyone over 65.

Health NZ recommended the two-shot vaccine for anyone over 50 but it was only free if people got their first dose in the year they turned 65.

Otherwise it could cost up to $800.

The Faculty of Pain Medicine, part of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, said whoever was in government next should change that as a priority.

Shingles is an often painful nerve condition caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox and which stays dormant in the body for decades.

Chair of the New Zealand National Committee of the college's faculty of pain medicine Charlotte Hill said one in three people would get shingles in their lives, rising to one in two over 85.

Up to a third of them developed a chronic nerve pain that could last for months or years.

It would be much better to prevent that condition from happening than to try and treat it, she said.

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"Once post-herpetic neuralgia develops, it can be extremely difficult to treat," she said.

"The medicines we use for neuropathic pain can have significant side effects, particularly in older people, including sedation and dizziness, which can contribute to falls and threaten independence."

Hill told Morning Report New Zealand did not have the capacity to manage the chronic pain, and prevention would lower pressures on GPs and pain management services.

In the meantime, she encouraged anyone over 50 who could afford to to pay for a vaccination and for those who were 65 not to miss out on their chance.

Australia funded the vaccine for everyone over 65.

Pharmac said it had five applications to widen access to the shingles vaccine and four of those were on its "options for investment list," the list of medicines it would fund if it had the budget.

Pharmaceuticals director Geraldine MacGibbon said the agency's immunisation committee was actively considering extending funding for the vaccine Shingrix to immunocompromised people.

Funding for vaccines was often targeted at age groups where the vaccine would likely provide the most benefit.

The current age was set after advice the vaccine's effectiveness reduces with age, she said.

Last year 70 percent of 65-year-olds had their shingles vaccine, she said.

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