After getting the shingles vaccine, I heard that I should stay away from my pregnant daughter and my grandchildren. Is that true?
Answer From Pritish K. Tosh, M.D.
If you get the Shingrix vaccine for shingles, you can visit with anyone after vaccination. If you get the Zostavax shingles vaccine, ask your health care provider about the risks of that vaccine for you and your family.
The virus that causes shingles is called varicella-zoster virus. It also causes chickenpox.
You may have heard you can pass the virus to others if you get the Zostavax shingles vaccine. That vaccine is offered outside of the United States. But it was used in the United States from 2006 to November 2020.
Zostavax is made from the whole but weakened varicella-zoster virus. That means your body gets a real infection but one that it should clear out easily.
Because the virus is still able to infect people, if you are vaccinated with Zostavax, you may be able to spread the virus to people who have never had chickenpox. If a pregnant person who has never had chickenpox is infected early in pregnancy, it can cause birth defects.
Shingrix is the only approved shingles vaccine in the United States. It has been used since October 2017. Instead of the whole, weak virus in Zostavax, Shingrix uses only a piece of the varicella-zoster virus.
Since Shingrix uses only a piece of the varicella-zoster virus to train the immune system, the vaccine can't cause illness in anyone else.
Research on Shingrix shows it's very good at preventing shingles. The vaccine protects 97% of healthy people age 50 to 69 years old, and 91% of people 70 and older from getting shingles. It also lowers the risk of a shingles complication called postherpetic neuralgia. Among adults who have weakened immune systems, the shingles vaccine protected 68% to 91% of people from getting shingles.
With
Pritish K. Tosh, M.D.
April 26, 2025
- Shingrix package insert. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/Shingrix. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
- Zostavax package insert. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/vaccines/Zostavax. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
- Clinical overview of shingles (Herpes zoster). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/hcp/clinical-overview/index.html. Accessed April 18, 2025.
- Hall E., et al., eds. Zoster. In: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. 14th ed. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021.
- Congenital varicella syndrome. Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/45/congenital-varicella-syndrome. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
- Vaccine types. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.hhs.gov/immunization/basics/types/index.html. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
- Shingles vaccination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/vaccines/index.html. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.