Advocates call for Alberta to cover cost of shingles vaccine

Seniors, health-care professionals and advocacy groups are pushing shingles vaccination—and are also calling on Alberta's government to fund the shot.

Seniors, health care professionals and advocacy groups are calling on Alberta’s government to publicly fund the vaccine for a painful, common skin infection.

Shingles is a rash caused by the same virus that brings on chickenpox.

About 130,000 Canadians contract the viral infection every year — and about a tenth of them develop lingering nerve pain.

Most of the patients are over 60 years old.

“It’s one of those illnesses that can be quite scary, and typically someone will have an experience with a friend or family member that had shingles and it was quite terrible, so they’ll spread the word or tell friends about it,” Calgary pharmacist Randy Howden said. “So yes, we do have a lot of demand for (the vaccine) here.”

But there is a problem: the shot isn’t funded by the province, and the needed two doses can run as high as $400 out-of-pocket.

That’s a lot of money for an age group largely on a fixed income.

“There are some people that can’t afford it,” Howden said. “There’s been a lot of research around vaccine hesitancy and why people choose to get or not to get a vaccine, and if you look at that, one of the reasons listed is always cost.”

Currently, the shingles vaccine is publicly funded for older adults of varying ages in Ontario, Quebec, PEI and Yukon.

Starting next month, Newfoundland will also offer the shots for free.

But in Alberta, that’s not the case.

The province does provide the shingles vaccine at no cost to solid organ transplant patients over 18, but advocates say that’s not good enough.

“This is something that the government should be covering,” CanAge President Laura Tamblyn Watts told CTV News. “Keeping our healthcare system flowing and getting rid of hallway medicine means investing a very little bit of money upfront on vaccines to save millions of dollars downstream.”

CanAge believes all provinces should publicly fund the shot for everyone 50 and up. That’s the vaccination age recommended by Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

The group says considering the shingles symptoms — described as burning electrical shocks on skin — the shot should be a “no-brainer.”

“But in Alberta, we haven’t been the first province to pick up coverage on vaccines in history,” Howden pointed out.

The Minister of Health wasn’t available for an interview on shingles.

Adriana Lagrange’s office did send a statement, saying “Alberta Health considers several factors when determining vaccine funding, including a disease’s epidemiology, vaccine effectiveness for specific age groups, cost, and the resources needed for an immunization program.

“While the shingles vaccine is safe and effective, shingles itself is not highly contagious like influenza or measles, as it does not typically spread person-to-person.”