World's First Randomised Shingles Vaccine Trial Opens in Tampere
FinDementia, a national trial testing whether the Shingrix shingles vaccine can prevent dementia, began recruiting in Tampere last week as part of a plan to enrol nearly 35,000 people aged 76 and older.
"Dementia is a serious disease and there is currently no preventive treatment," warns scientific director Arto Palmu. Last week Tampere began recruiting participants for FinDementia, the world's first randomised trial testing whether the shingles vaccine can prevent dementia, Aamulehti reports.
The national FinDementia project aims to enrol nearly 35,000 people aged 76 and older. Recruitment is underway at FVR vaccine clinics in Tampere, Helsinki, Espoo, Järvenpää, Turku, Kokkola, Seinäjoki and Oulu, and will expand to selected wellbeing regions and pharmacies in April. It's a large-scale effort.
The trial uses the Shingrix vaccine, licensed in the EU since 2018. Participants will be followed through health registries, and more than 25,000 volunteers are expected to receive the active vaccine. The randomised design is intended to determine whether the association observed in earlier studies is causal.
Previous observational studies have suggested a 20–30 percent lower dementia risk among vaccinated people, but causation has not been established. Palmu points to the trial's public health stakes: about 150,000 Finns live with dementia and care costs run at least €3–4 billion a year. He says the study will also probe links with other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and ALS.
Catch the full story over at Aamulehti
