A new Stanford study rekindles hopes on the fight against dementia and Alzheimer’s. The vaccine against the fire of S.Antonio could significantly reduce the risk of getting sick.
The vaccine against Herpes Zoster (also called Fire of Sant’Antonio) protects against the risk of developing dementia: the study, published in Nature, was carried out by analyzing the data of over 280,000 people residing in Wales they had received The Zostavax vaccine between 2013 and 2020 The study showed that vaccinated had a risk of developing dementia in the following 7 years of 20% less than those who had not received the drug. “If the effect is truly causal, we are faced with a discovery of enormous importance,” he said Pascal Geldsetzer, author of the Stake and teacher of Stanford. The protective effect was better in women than men: the experiment was possible because in Wales the authorities decided to offer all the elderly for free from September 2, 1933 onwards the vaccine against the fire of S. Antonio, excluding the oldest people. This policy has in fact divided the population into two, thus allowing scholars to carry on A large -scale study on individuals of equal age.
These results could open the way for a prevention strategy that can strongly affect the health expectations of the elderly. With the introduction of a new recombinant vaccine, called SHINGRIX, (approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) US in 2017 and byEuropean drug agency (Ema) In 2018) more effective than Zostavax, other studies have been carried out which have in fact confirmed the cognitive benefits. A research conducted byUniversity of Oxford He found that Shingrix is associated with a reduction in the risk of dementia of 17% in the six years following vaccination. In Italy, the national vaccination prevention plan provides that the anti zoster vaccine is offered for free to people with more than 65 years of age and fragile subjects from 18 years of age.
