Infectious Disease Specialist Questions Infectious Disease Specialists

My covid booster?

After I have completed taking my meds for shingles valacyclovir/ prednisone how long do I have to wait before I can get the covid booster?

Male | 57 years old
Medications: valacy/pred
Conditions: shingles

6 Answers

Since you have just recently recovered from the shingles virus, your immune system is down so I would probably wait at least 6 weeks from your shingles episode so your body can recover.
Good day to you! Thanks for your question.
Herpes zoster (Shingles) is viral infection that occurs with reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus. Varicella-zoster virus is an ADN virus. SARS-CoV-2 virus is an ARN virus. Therefore there is no interaction among these two viruses. However, immune system is affected by shingles, and in my opinion you may wait for about one months until the the the skin rush and pain are gone. I am advising you also to ask you physician  advise in this respect. If there is an immediate need to take the shots please visit medical staff at  Vaccination Center to get more advises.

Good luck and stay safe,
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If your rash or skin lesions disappeared wait 2 weeks and can get the booster, there is no rule of how long to wait, but infectious disease doctors want complete healing and 4 weeks after to get vaccine.
Once you are off the prednisolone, wait a week.
Thanks for the question.

Valacyclovir is neutral - does not matter. Once you are off prednisone for a few days to weeks, get the booster. And at some point, get the shingles vaccine, too.
Prednisone is a well known immunomodulation medicine which reduces the efficacy of the immune system, which is extremely important in a vaccine response. It takes about two weeks for prednisone to completely be cleared from the body, so I would suggest you wait that long after stopping this medicine before getting a booster shot.

Yours truly,

Dr. Richard Evan (Rick) Steele