Statins can increase the risk of shingles infection

This study was published in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 2015 Jul;34(7):1451-8

Study title and authors:
Statins can increase the risk of herpes zoster infection in Asia.

Chen HH, Lin CL, Yeh CJ, Yeh SY, Kao CH.
Institute of Medicine and Public Health, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25864192

This study evaluated whether statin therapy increases the risk of herpes zoster (shingles). The study included 53,069 patients receiving statin therapy and 53,069 patients without statin therapy who were followed for more than 4.5 years.

The study found:
(a) Patients taking statins had a 21 % higher risk of contracting shingles than the patients not taking statins.
(b) Patients taking higher dose statins had more than 150% higher risk of contracting shingles than the patients not taking statins.

Chen concluded: "Statin therapy can increase herpes zoster (shingles) infection."

 

Links to other studies:

13 year study of nearly one million individuals shows that statins significantly increase the risk of shingles in older people

Doctor says statin drug hypersensitivity reactions are potentially life-threatening

Statins may be associated with skin lesions