Safeway Eastern Division Pharmacies Provide New Shingles Shot

Safeway pharmacies in the company’s Lanham, Md.-based Eastern division are now offering Shringrix, the new, more effective shingles vaccine.

The two-dose series has shown an average of more than 90 percent effectiveness compared with the previous vaccine, Zostavax, which averaged an effectiveness rate of just over 50 percent. As a result, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people 50 and older should now get the Shingrix vaccine, including those previously vaccinated with Zostavax, as long as it’s been at least eight weeks since they’ve received a Zostavax shot.

Millions of Americans, particularly those age 40 and up, are susceptible to shingles, which is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once the virus, varicella zoster, infects a person, it remains dormant in nerve roots for decades, ready to reassert itself when the immune system is compromised by stress, medication, trauma or disease. One-third of Americans eventually get shingles, and the risk increases with age.

Safeway’s pharmacies offer comprehensive immunization services on a walk-in basis, including travel vaccines for cholera, hepatitis A/B, Japanese encephalitis, polio, rabies, typhoid, and yellow fever, among other illnesses, back-to-school immunizations, and vaccines for such other illnesses as pneumonia, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis, meningitis and mumps. 

Part of Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons Cos., Safeway’s Eastern division consists of 117 stores in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Florida and Delaware. Albertsons Cos. operates stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia under 19 well-known banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen and Carrs.