Expert in the News: CoE Officer Rosanne Leipzig in The New York Times on the new Shingles Vaccine
On April 9, 2018, The New York Times’ Personal Health column by Jane Brody highlighted Rosanne Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D., a site officer of the John A. Hartford Foundation’s Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
“Why You Should Get the New Shingles Vaccine,” focuses on the new product Shringrix, which has been shown “to be far more effective at preventing this disease than the first shingles vaccine, Zostavax,” Brody states.
The piece notes how common chickenpox was before the 1995 chickenpox vaccine, highlighted with a fact from Dr. Leipzig. “Studies have indicated that more than 99% of Americans aged 40 and older have had chicken pox even if they don’t remember it, according to Dr. Rosanne M. Leipzig, geriatrician at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.”
Brody later shares Dr. Leipzig’s recommendations for getting the shingles vaccine. “If you are uncertain about your vaccine history, you can get a blood test to check for immunity to chickenpox, though the rest does not distinguish between protection via the disease or the vaccine. Thus, if the result is positive, Dr. Leipzig says you’d be wise to get the shingles vaccine because you could be harboring the live virus.”
Read the full article here.
Rosanne Leipzig, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.