It’s a rare researcher who invests years of work in a new treatment and then is able to watch as the treatment not only gains approval, but becomes standard medical practice.
Dr. Myron Levin of the University of Colorado is about to become one of the lucky few.
Levin, 68, a professor of childhood infectious diseases at the university’s medical school, began testing a shingles vaccine in the 1980s.
An advisory committee of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month recommended that the Levin vaccine – Zostavax – be given to every adult 60 or older to prevent shingles.
“I feel very blessed that I could work on something so long and live to see it approved, and I think it will do some good for people,” Levin said.
The recommendation is important because it likely means that insurance companies and Medicare will begin covering the vaccine’s cost – about $150.
Shingles is a blistering skin rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. The virus stays in the body, lying dormant for decades.
For reasons scientists don’t understand, it can reactivate – most often in older people whose immune systems aren’t as robust.
The result is a blistery rash and pain on one side of the body.
Often the pain is excruciating, and it can last long after the rash fades, sometimes for months or even years.
Zostavax, which is made by Merck & Co., was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in May.
It was just over a year ago that results of clinical studies conducted by Levin and others were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial found that the vaccine cut shingles cases by more than half, and among those who got the rash after being vaccinated, occurrences of long-lasting pain were reduced 67 percent.
Levin, who was on the Harvard Medical School faculty before coming to Colorado in 1982, said his work on the shingles vaccine had its genesis in 1979, with efforts to create a shot to prevent chickenpox in children.
“At the time, we already had good ideas that as you get older, your immunity diminishes and the virus reactivates and comes back to cause shingles,” he said.
Vaccines to prevent chickenpox are now part of the vaccine regimen recommended for children.
The shingles vaccine is identical to the one given to children to prevent chickenpox, “just 14 times more potent,” Levin said.
The CDC committee that recommended the vaccine for adults over 60 did not say whether vaccination a good idea for adults of any age who have had chickenpox and are at risk for shingles, or for adults who have already had shingles.
Levin said he is now working on answering those lingering questions.
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
