Reply

We appreciate the thoughtful comments from Dr. Lai and agree that “vaccination for herpes zoster is the best way to prevent this disease and its consequences (such as postherpetic neuralgia).” Dr Lai calculated the number needed to treat (NNT) on the basis of the reciprocal of the difference in herpes zoster incidence rates between the vaccinated and unvaccina ted groups. However, the NNT estimate generated from this approach may be difficult to interpret for several reasons. Because this NNT is computed from the incidence rate of events, its inverse does not represent persons but rather person-time.
Source: Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research