Shingles vaccine: Who is eligible after huge dementia prevention findings

Scientists may have just found the strongest evidence yet that a jab could slash dementia risk by a fifth, thanks to an unusual vaccine rollout in Wales.

Dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with around 10 million new cases every year. Despite huge progress in scientific research, there have been no major breakthroughs in the prevention or treatment of dementia – leading scientists to explore other avenues.

A new study has found that a vaccine for shingles, a common condition that causes a painful rash, could protect against dementia.

Shingles is a condition that largely affects adults who have previously had chickenpox. The virus that causes both of the conditions, called varicella zoster, invades the nervous system before becoming dormant, only to emerge again long after chickenpox symptoms have gone.

Shingles is more likely to affect older adults or people with a weakened immune system. It can sometimes cause serious problems such as long-lasting pain, hearing loss or blindness, according to the NHS.

There's a growing body of evidence to suggest that viruses like shingles could contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. If this is the case, vaccines protecting people from the virus may have additional brain health benefits.

According to researchers from Stanford University, health records of nearly 300,000 older adults in Wales revealed that those who received a shingles vaccine called Zostavax were 20 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over the next seven years than those who went without.

Pascal Geldsetzer, of Stanford University and senior author of the study, said: "For the first time we are able to say much more confidently that the