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This podcast is brought to you by the Department of Health and aged Care and was produced in Meanjin Brisbane on the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples. We acknowledge the traditional owners and pay our respects to elders both past and present.
Join us on this podcast to hear GP doctor Richard Mills and First Nations Health professional, Trina Scott, as they talk about how you can help shield yourself against shingles.
Dr Richard Mills:
Hi, I'm Dr Richard Mills. I've been a GP for over 30 years. For the last 16 years, I've been working in Southeast Queensland and the Northern Territory with Aboriginal community-controlled health services and currently I work in Caboolture on the lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people.
Trina Scott:
And I'm Trina Scott. I'm a registered nurse and my experience is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Primary Health care and diabetes.
I'm a proud Bundjalung woman and I'm a nurse navigator at Kallangur Satellite Hospital on Gubbi Gubbi Country.
We're here today to yarn about shingles and share some facts which you may not know. We're also going to let you know how to shield yourself from shingles with the Shingrix immunisation that is free for mob aged 50 years and older.
Trina Scott
Dr Richard, what should mob know about shingles?
Dr Richard Mills:
Well, shingles is a painful, blistering rash. It usually appears on the body. It could appear anywhere, often on the torso, and it usually appears in a band. Sometimes people don't know they've got shingles until a few days after the symptoms appear, so people feel an itching or an irritation. Sometimes they feel pins and needles or pain, and then the rash will appear a couple of days afterwards.
The rash usually has blisters, and the blisters contain the chickenpox virus, because shingles is actually a reactivation of the chickenpox virus that we often acquire during childhood. So, the chickenpox virus never leaves our body, it stays dormant and then at some point in the future it may be reactivated.
The rash could appear anywhere on our body, and sometimes it will appear on the face. Occasionally it will even appear in the eye, and that can cause quite serious complications for people's vision. It may also appear in the ear and affect hearing.
And there are also some rare occasions, well, when it can affect the lungs causing an inflammation there, and that's what we call pneumonitis. And it may even affect the brain and that's what we call encephalitis, so it can affect lots of different parts of our body.
Trina Scott:
We know that shingles can be serious, especially as you get older. We also know that you've got a 1 in 3 chance of getting shingles as an adult.
Dr Richard, what symptoms have you come across when people are presenting to you?
Dr Richard Mills:
Yeah. So, as you said, Trina, you know if you had chickenpox as a child, then you've got a 1 in 3 chance at some time in your life of having shingles.
But sometimes they'll get this painful rash, not really know what it is. And then of course, the diagnosis is obvious once you’ve got the rash, so I think everybody knows someone who has had shingles and I think that's why the Shingrix vaccine is proving so popular.
Actually, amongst older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the prospect of, you know, not having shingles and not being able to have shingles again if you've already had shingles is a really important message to get across.
But it's also a message that resonates with people either who've had it themselves or who know somebody who's had shingles.
Trina Scott:
And Dr Richard, we know that there are many people who believe that shingles is contagious.
Dr Richard Mills:
So, you can't catch shingles from somebody who's got shingles, but because the blisters themselves actually contain the chickenpox virus, and therefore you can catch chickenpox from somebody who's got shingles if you haven't had chickenpox before.
Trina Scott:
And another one is that some people believe that if you've had shingles once, you won't get it again.
Dr Richard Mills:
Well, unfortunately that's not true either.
So if you've had shingles once, often people think to themselves, ‘Oh well, I've put up with the rash I've got over it and I won't get it again.’
But unfortunately, because the chickenpox virus, as I've already said, never leaves our body, it is possible at some point in the future for it to be reactivated again and it can reappear in the same place or in a different place on your body again, as this blistering rash.
Trina Scott:
Dr Richard, how can mob protect themselves from shingles?
Dr Richard Mills:
Well, the good news is you can be immunised against having shingles.
The Shingrix vaccine is free for mob aged 50 years and older. It's highly effective and a real game changer in protecting people against shingles. Importantly, you do need to get 2 doses of the Shingrix vaccine and the protection lasts for up to 10 years.
After getting the vaccine, you might experience a mild reaction such as tiredness or muscle aches, but these usually only last a couple of days.
Trina Scott:
So people at high risk of serious illness from shingles can get the vaccine for free, and this includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mob aged 50 years and older.
Dr Richard, how do we get mob to start the conversation around shingles?
Dr Richard Mills:
Yeah, so there's lots of places where people can find out information about getting immunised against shingles.
I suppose the best way is to talk to your Aboriginal community-controlled health worker, a registered nurse or next time you visit your GP to start the conversation.
Trina Scott:
So just to recap on some of the facts about shingles that we've yarned about today:
- We know shingles is serious.
- If you've had chickenpox as a kid, you've got 1 in 3 chances of getting it as an adult.
- You can get shingles more than once.
- You can't catch shingles from someone else with shingles, and
- It can be more serious as you get older.
Dr Richard Mills:
The good news is you can protect yourself from getting shingles because the Shingrix vaccine is free for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years and older and immunocompromised adults aged 18 years and older with eligible medical conditions.
Yarn with your GP or health professional to make sure you're eligible, especially if you've received the shingles vaccine called Zostavax previously as some conditions apply.
So, start the conversation today and shield yourself from shingles.
Trina Scott:
Thank you for listening to the podcast. For more information on how to shield yourself from shingles, visit the Department of Health and Aged Care website at health.gov.au/shield-yourself-from-shingles.