Chickenpox vaccine may protect kids from shingles

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Children who get vaccinated against chickenpox may have a lower risk of developing shingles, a painful rash caused by the chickenpox virus, U.S. researchers said on Friday.

A study of more than 170,000 children 12 and under who got Merck & Co Inc's chickenpox vaccine between 2002 to 2008 found only 122 cases of shingles or 1 case in 3,700 children who got the vaccine, an unexpectedly low rate, the team reported in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

Shingles, sometimes called herpes zoster, is a painful recurrence of the chickenpox virus, which can lurk in the body for a lifetime. The infection usually starts with a rash on the face or body, and causes pain, itching or tingling.

"The message to parents and pediatricians is: vaccinating your child against the chickenpox is also a good way to reduce their chances of getting herpes zoster," said HungFu Tseng, a research scientist and epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California.

"We decided to examine this because it is generally believed that the vaccine would reduce the risk of chickenpox, and the risk of childhood shingles is not well quantified," Tseng said in e-mailed comments.

Tseng said childhood shingles is not common. "We do know that it occurs more frequently in children with an immunodeficiency," Tseng said.

Using Kaiser Permanente's electronic health record database, the team identified all the children in Southern California who were vaccinated with chickenpox vaccine from 2002-2008. "We then went deeper into the electronic data to identify which cases had shingles diagnosis," Tseng said.

Among those children who had been vaccinated and developed shingles, one had lymphoid leukemia, one involved drug abuse, 16 had asthma, 12 had developmental disorders and 3 had psychological or mental disorders.

Prior studies of the incidence of shingles in children who have not been vaccinated for chickenpox have varied widely. Before the introduction of Merck's vaccine in 1995, the rate was 30 cases per 100,000 people per year.

Tseng said it is not clear if children who get the vaccine will have any protection as adults, even if they get a now-recommended booster shot.

"We don't know how long the protection will last, but with the new recommendation of two doses it is expected to be much longer," he said.

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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Insomnia sufferers double in Taiwan: study

TAIPEI (AFP) - The number of Taiwanese suffering from chronic insomnia has nearly doubled in three years, as economic worries caused by the global downturn have brought more sleepless nights, according to a new study.

Nearly five million, or 21.8 percent of the island's 23 million people, have chronic insomnia, compared with 11.5 percent three years ago, according to the study from the Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine.

The study also found that people with sleeping problems faced higher risks of developing heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, the society said in a statement.

The hike in sleeplessness was largely caused by unemployment, as the island's plunge into recession late last year made the job situation much more dire, it said.

Chronic insomnia is defined as having three sleepless night in a week with the symptoms lasting over one month.

Over 60 percent of the 4,000 people interviewed for the study also complained about having difficulties falling asleep within 30 minutes or waking up at nights.

Taiwan's October jobless rate was 5.96 percent, down from August's record high of 6.13 percent as the global financial crisis dealt a heavy blow to the island's export-dependent economy.

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