How to avoid an attack of Shingles?

The only way to prevent shingles is to make sure that you do not get a chicken pox infection in your lifetime. That is a difficult aim given that about 95 percent of children get chicken pox before the age of 18. However in the last decade scientists have come up with a vaccine for preventing chicken pox. Available in US since 1995 the vaccine is thought to be effective in at least 2/3rds of the cases. Even if a vaccinated person gets chicken pox, it is usually a mild attack with fewer complications. According to statistics, at least 60 percent of American kids have been vaccinated against chicken pox in the last decade. That may not be enough to eradicate shingles as there is still a sizeable population who has been affected with the wild form of chicken pox in their childhood. However with each successive generation, doctors feel that the chicken pox vaccine will help in controlling shingles as well. 

Some studies have been done that show that a zoster vaccine can help the elderly patients in fighting off shingles. The companies that produce the vaccine alongwith the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have been conducting several studies to see how a shingles vaccine can be used to prevent older people from getting shingles and PHN.