Herpes zoster is associated with an elevated long-term risk for a cardiovascular event, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Dr Sharon G Curhan, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the longitudinal association of herpes zoster and long-term risk for stroke or coronary heart disease (CHD) among 79,658 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, 93,932 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II, and 31,440 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

The researchers found that 3603 incident stroke and 8620 incident CHD cases were documented during more than two million person-years of follow-up.

There was a significant and independent association observed for history of herpes zoster with higher long-term risk for stroke and CHD.