About Shingles

• About 1 in every 3 people in the United States will have shingles in their lifetime.¹
• As you get older, your risk for having shingles and serious complications increases.¹
• About 10% to 18% of people who have shingles develop severe pain in the area where the shingles rash occurred that lasts for months or years after the rash goes away.¹
• CDC recommends two doses of the shingles vaccine (recombinant zoster vaccine – RZV, Shingrix)—to prevent shingles and related complications in adults 50 years and older.²
• Shingrix is also recommended for adults 19 years and older who have weakened immune systems because of disease or therapy.²
• Despite these recommendations, the percentage of adults aged 60 and over who have ever received a shingles vaccine is 33.4%.³
• Non-Hispanic white adults (38.6%) are more likely to have ever received a shingles vaccine than both non-Hispanic black (18.8%) adults and Hispanic (19.5%) adults.³
• Vaccination rates among adults aged 60 and older in the South Atlantic and East South Central United States are significantly lower than the U.S. average.³
• Shingles vaccines are widely available in your local pharmacy or through your doctor’s office.
• Getting a shingles vaccine is the best way for you to protect yourself against this painful disease.

¹ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Shingles (Accessed October 21, 2024). Available at https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/about/index.html

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shingles Stats and Facts (Accessed October 21, 2024). Available at https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/data-research/index.html

³ Terlizzi EP, Black LI. Shingles Vaccination Among Adults Aged 60 and Over: United State, 2018. NCHS Data Brief, no 370. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2020. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db370-h.pdf