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The new two-dose recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV; Shingrix) has been greeted with enthusiasm because of its impressive efficacy rates during clinical trials and its presumed safety in immunocompromised patients (NEJM JW Infect Dis Jul 2015 and N Engl J Med 2015; 372:2087). Still, researchers have not yet assessed RZV's performance in clinical settings or directly compared its performance with that of the older live attenuated vaccine (LAV; Zostrix).
To compare the two vaccines indirectly, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 27 randomized and observational studies that involved more than 2 million patients (age, >50). The investigators were able to conclude that, for preventing both suspected and confirmed herpes zoster, the performance …