Do I need both doses?

Yes. One dose gives partial protection that falls away; the second is what makes it durable. They are given two to six months apart, and if you are late for the second you do not restart — you simply have it.

I have already had shingles. Is there any point?

Yes. Shingles can recur, and having had it once does not protect you from having it again. Vaccination is generally recommended after the rash has fully resolved.

Will it make me feel unwell?

The shingles vaccine is more reactogenic than most vaccines — a sore arm, tiredness, muscle ache or a mild fever for a day or two is common, and more so after the second dose. That is the adjuvant doing its job. Many people plan the dose for a day they can take easy.

Coverage in Québec depends on your age and on whether you have a qualifying medical condition, and the rules change. The price here is what you pay if you are not covered. Ask at the appointment and you will be told plainly which applies to you.

A man in his late fifties in morning sun, sleeve pushed up over a small plaster on his upper arm.

Vaccination · Reviewed by a physician

Shingles vaccination

If you have had chickenpox, the virus never left — it sits dormant in nerve tissue and can reactivate decades later as shingles. This vaccine trains the immune system to keep it dormant. It is given as two doses, and both are needed.

From$249.51per dose

Book an evaluation See how it works

At a glance

Appointment

20minutes

Review, dose, then a short wait.

Doses

2doses

Two to six months apart.

Protection begins

1month

After the second dose.

Protection lasts

10+years

Protection is durable.

An older person’s hands folded over a wool throw.

Who it is for

Is this one for you?

Eligibility is a medical question, not a preference. A physician reviews your history before any dose is given.

How it works

It keeps a dormant virus dormant.

Chickenpox does not clear. After the childhood illness, the varicella-zoster virus retreats into nerve cells near the spine and stays there, held in check by immune cells that remember it. That memory fades with age, and when it fades enough the virus can travel back down a nerve and erupt as shingles — a band of blistering rash along the path of that one nerve, often with pain that outlasts the rash by months.

This vaccine is recombinant rather than live: it contains a surface protein from the virus and an adjuvant that provokes a strong response to it. That rebuilds the immune memory the years eroded. Because it is not a live vaccine, it can be given to people whose immune systems are suppressed, which the older live vaccine could not.

A dormant bulb on stone beside a shallow brass dish.

01
The dose
An injection into the muscle of the upper arm. It takes a few seconds.
02
The response
Your immune system learns to recognise the target and builds antibodies against it over the following weeks.
03
The memory
Those cells stay. If you meet the real thing later, the response is already prepared.

Your visit

One appointment, about 20 minutes.

Most of it is the review beforehand and the wait afterwards.

01
First
The review
Your vaccination history, your medical history, and what you are actually due — which is sometimes not what you booked for.
02
Then
The dose
An injection into the upper arm, recorded in your medical file.
03
15 minutes
The wait
You stay in the clinic afterwards. Immediate reactions are rare, and this is where they would be managed.

Dr. Andrew Gyopar, physician at Clinique Medix.

Who performs it

A physician reviews it first.

A vaccination at a medical clinic is not the same transaction as one at a counter. A physician reviews your history first — what you have had, what you are due, what you are travelling to, and whether anything in your record changes the answer — and the dose is recorded in a medical file rather than on a card you are asked to keep.

Dr. Andrew Gyopar

General Surgeon, Medical Director

Pricing

The price, agreed before anything starts.

What it costs, and what the figure is counted in. The plan and the price are written down and agreed at your evaluation, before any treatment begins.

From

$249.51per dose

Per dose. Two doses are needed, given two to six months apart.

Reviewed by Dr. Andrew Gyopar before administration.

Prices are before taxes and may change without notice. Results vary from one person to another. A medical evaluation is required before any treatment.

Book an evaluation

Before and after