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The incidence of herpes zoster (HZ) is increased in patients with immune-mediated conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. However, such patients were excluded from the original vaccine efficacy studies due to concerns that the biologics commonly used for these conditions could raise the risk for developing varicella infection from the live vaccine virus strain. In a recent retrospective cohort analysis, researchers used administrative claims data for 2006 through 2009 from U.S. Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥60 to assess the association between HZ vaccination and HZ incidence in patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, or inflammatory bowel disease.
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