Shingles

 

Facts About Shingles

Shingles or herpes zoster is an outbreak of rash or blisters on the skin that is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox- the varicella-zoster virus, which enters your system through your nose or throat. The person who passes the virus on is usually unaware of its presence.

After several days or a week, a rash of fluid-filled blisters, similar to chickenpox, appear in one area on one side of your body. Shingles pain can be mild or intense. Some people have mostly itching and some feel pain from a light touch or breeze that passes by.

About one in 10 healthy adults who've had chicken pox eventually develop shingles, usually after age 50. Most people develop shingles only once, but recurrence in other areas are possible. Shingles isn't contagious, but the varicella-zoster virus can cause chicken pox in anyone who hasn't had chickenpox before. The infection can be serious for some people with weak immune systems.

Those with HIV infection or who are receiving cancer treatments that can weaken their immune systems. People who receive organ transplants are also vulnerable to shingles because they are given drugs that suppress the immune system.

A person with a shingles rash can pass the virus to someone, usually a child, who has never had chickenpox, but the child will develop chickenpox, not shingles. A person with chickenpox cannot communicate shingles to someone else. Shingles comes from the virus hiding inside the person's body, not from an outside source.

Symptoms of Shingles

• Slight fever, malaise, chills, upset stomach

• Bruised feeling, usually on one side of your face or body.

• Pain (often in your chest) that is followed several days later by tingling, itching, or prickling skin and an inflamed, red skin rash.

• A group or long strip of small, fluid-filled blisters

• Deep burning, searing, aching, or stabbing pain, which may be continuous or intermittent

Some scientists believe that in the original battle with the varicella-zoster virus, some of the virus particles leave your skin blisters and move into your nervous system.

When the varicella-zoster virus reactivates, the virus moves back down the long nerve fibers that extend from your sensory cell bodies to your skin. The viruses multiply, causing rashes to erupt, giving you a shingles outbreak. In the beginning stages of the condition, you may notice muscle pain and after a day or two, the rash appears first as a cluster of small blisters scattered over a narrow band around one side of your body.

You'll have the most discomfort when your rash reaches its peak. After that time, it gradually begins to dry up over a two-week period. For most healthy people, the lesions heal, the pain subsides within three to five weeks, and the blisters leave no scars.

What Increases Your Risk

Risk for developing shingles include:

• Having had chickenpox. You must have had chickenpox to get shingles.

• Being older than 50

• Having a weakened immune system due to another disease, such as diabetes or HIV infection

• Experiencing stress or trauma

• Developing chickenpox prior to age one

• Having cancer or receiving treatment for cancer

Shingles can vary anywhere from a mild small patch of rashes to an extensive solid band several inches wide, covering one side of your body.

In a mild case, your symptoms require small medical treatment. In severe cases, pain can last for weeks or even months after your rash appears, which requires intensive medical attention. When shingles occur on the upper side of your face, your eyes may be affected causing damage to your cornea.

Shingles cases are usually milder in children and young adults. Severe cases are more likely to occur in older people and it usually lasts longer. It's kind of an interesting relationship between the virus that causes shingles and the one that causes chicken pox.

It's believed that exposure to an adult who has had chicken pox to a child with chicken pox may result in a case of shingles and a child who has never had chicken pox may develop them after exposure to an adult with shingles.