ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Merlin Allshouse thought he'd pulled a muscle lifting heavy objects, but what followed was an eight month ordeal that left him in constant, extreme pain every day.
Allshouse is one of nearly a million people diagnosed each year with shingles -- a condition caused by the same type of herpes virus responsible for chicken pox. Most people get chicken pox as children, but when the disease runs it's course, the virus retreats to the spinal cord where it stays hidden, only to return in many cases when a person is older. Half of all people over the age of 80 will get shingles.
"It was constant nerve pain," says Allshouse. "You couldn't get it to go away and there was no way to rest or get comfortable, no matter what you did. I had quadruple bypass surgery and the shingles pain was much more severe and long-lasting than the bypass surgery pain."
The virus that causes shingles, called varicella-zoster, stays dormant in a collection of nerves in the spine, then re-emerges along the same band of nerves. It causes a localized rash and blisters that typically last anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months. However, the often-debilitating pain that accompanies the blisters can persist for several months or even years.
Until recently, shingles was considered an inevitable part of getting older. However, researchers in the VA-Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the University of Michigan Health System, as well as 21 other sites, are taking part in a national study to determine if a vaccine similar to the one given to children to prevent chicken pox will prevent shingles in older adults. The study is funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, in part by a grant from Merck & Co., Inc.
"I take care of patients who have shingles, mostly older adults, and the blisters are no problem," says Carol Kauffman, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at the VA-Ann Arbor Healthcare System and professor of internal medicine in the U-M health System. "The blisters go away in several weeks. However, the pain is a major problem that is very difficult to treat, very difficult to make it go away. I see it really ruining people's lives for months on end, so I'm really excited and confident that this study will show us that we can prevent this.
The study hopes to enroll 37,000 people who are over the age of 60 and have never had shingles before. "What we're trying to do is boost their immunity so that we can prevent the shingles virus from coming out of the nerves where it's living," says Kauffman. She thinks that the vaccine is something that will eventually be offered to everybody over the age of 60.
Current treatment for shingles includes antiviral drugs, steroids, antidepressants, and topical agents. People with shingles usually take pain medications that have varying degrees of success, depending on each case. Kauffman says this presents further complications.
"Many people end up taking narcotics to control the extreme pain," says Kauffman. "Unfortunately, this is difficult if you're talking about people over the age of 80 who are taking narcotics on top of other medications, which is not a good idea."
Why do older adults get shingles? "People at risk for shingles are normal, healthy adults who are getting older and we think it's because your immunity to chicken pox begins to wane," says Kauffman. "The virus is no longer held in check by your body and it will begin to grow and come out along the nerves. So, the older you are, the more likely you are to get shingles and the more severe the pain is likely to be."
Kauffman says people whose immune system is compromised, those who have had a transplant, or some types of cancer such as leukemia or lymphoma, are at higher risk for getting shingles at any age.
It is not possible to catch shingles from somebody who has it. A person can only get shingles by having chicken pox earlier in life. On the other hand, an adult with shingles can cause a person who has not had chicken pox to get chicken pox.
Allshouse says he feels pretty good now and hopes the new vaccine study proves to be a success. "If you've had shingles like I had, take it from me, I know firsthand, you should get all the help you can."
People interested in taking part in the shingles vaccine study should call the VA-Ann Arbor Healthcare System at 734-213-6988 or toll free at 800-361-8387 then push 7.