It would pay to give shingles vaccine to over-65s, says Cork TD

A Cork TD has said that introducing a free, comprehensive immunisation programme — to include a shingles vaccine — for people over the age of 65 would be “cost effective”, despite the Government’s stance to the contrary.

Fine Gael Cork North Central TD Colm Burke said that such a scheme would alleviate pressures on hospitals and their staff.

His comments follow his parliamentary question to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the health minister, asking for an update on the implementation of the national immunisation advisory committee recommendations for older-adult vaccination against influenza, pneumococcal disease, shingles, and respiratory syncytial virus.

Ms Carroll MacNeill said that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) carried out a health technology assessment (HTA) on the herpes zoster vaccine, which protects against shingles, and that the assessment found that adding the shingles vaccine to the routine immunisation schedule, at the vaccine price at the time, for all adults aged 65 and over, “would not be cost effective and would be associated with a substantial budget impact”.

“It could be cost effective for vaccination of those at 75 years and 80 years, if the cost of the vaccine was reduced by 80%,” 

said Ms Carroll MacNeill.

“Given that the healthcare budget is finite, and decisions regarding increased spending relating to a change in one area could impact the provision of other health technologies and treatments, the cost-effectiveness must be considered in any decision-making process,” she said.

“My department determined that the introduction of the vaccine could be reconsidered when the cost effectiveness is confirmed as being more favourable.”

The current cost of the shingles vaccine ranges from €200 to €243 per dose, with a two-dose course costing between €480 and €487.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Burke said that the Government needs to “put in place processes that can keep people out of the hospital system”.

“I think there is a huge saving, if you have a vaccine programme in place,” said Mr Burke.

“If you have someone admitted to hospital [with shingles], they’re in the hospital for between seven and 14 days.

“It’s quite an expensive vaccine to get, and if [the Government] paid out €300 or €400 per person, you would see huge savings in real terms,” he said.

“We have a growing ageing population; in the last census, there were more than 800,000 people who were over 65 [years old], and within four years, that’s going to be over one million.”