What to know about shingles, a painful infection that vaccination can prevent
NBA star Tyrese Haliburton was recently diagnosed with shingles. The news drew attention to an illness that many people rarely talk about but is far more common than many realize.
In Canada, 130,000 people develop shingles each year. The infection can cause a painful rash and, for some, long-lasting pain that can affect their quality of life for months.
Yet shingles cases are also largely preventable through vaccination. Despite the availability of a highly effective vaccine, fewer than four in 10 Canadian adults aged 50 and older report having received the shingles vaccine.
As researchers focused on aging and vaccination at Toronto Metropolitan University’s National Institute on Ageing, we study vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccination policies and opportunities to improve prevention in Canada.
Learn more by reading The Overlooked Issue of Shingles Infections in Older Canadians and How to Address It. (2026).
