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Shingles
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Shingles is a painful rash that is caused by a particular virus. You can get shingles anywhere on your body, it is most common around the trunk of the body in a band that follows a dermatome-which is a single nerve root. The rash then wraps around your body from your back to your front.
Shingles has just one cause-the Varicella zoster virus. This is the identical virus to what causes chicken pox. It is believed that the chicken pox virus lies within the base of the nerve roots and lies dormant until certain triggers causes the virus to spread down the nerve and cause a breakout.
Shingles isn't life threatening but it is painful. You can get a vaccination against chicken pox which can eliminate the possibility of getting shingles. This lessens the complication risk for shingles as well.
There are several symptoms of shingles. You can develop a numbness, pain or tingling in the area of a certain nerve. A red rash shows up a few days after the pain begins. The rash contains fluid-filled blisters. The blisters break open and the rash scabs over. The rash is usually painful but can also itch, especially as it is healing. If shingles is severe, you can develop fatigue, achy muscles and joints, fever, chills and headache.
Pain is often the first symptom you find in this disease and it can be severe enough to require medical attention. The cause of the pain is sometimes unknown until the rash finally shows up. Some people will develop the pain in the affected area but will never develop the rash. The pain lasts up to two weeks. Shingles can affect the face and the eye itself.
The only cause of shingles is the varicella zoster virus. If you have had chicken pox sometimes in your life, you are at risk for getting shingles, even decades later. No one knows exactly why this happens. Some people feel that it is most likely to happen when the immune system is lowered and is caught unawares. This is why it is more common in the elderly and in those who have weakened immune systems. Varicella zoster is a member of the herpes virus classification-the same viruses that cause genital herpes and cold sores. This is why shingles is often called herpes zoster.
If you have shingles, you can be contagious to someone who has never had chicken pox before. It occurs when the person puts another person in direct contact with the sores. The person who gets the virus will not get shingles but will get chickenpox. Chicken pox and shingles can be dangerous to newborn babies, pregnant women who have not had chicken pox or anyone with a weak immune system. Fortunately, most adults in the US have had chicken pox at some point in their childhood. Now there is a vaccine patients can take that prevents the chicken pox virus from taking hold. You cannot get shingles if you have had the chicken pox vaccine.
Shingles is more common in those over the age of 50. The risk goes up with advancing age. At least half of all people greater than age 85 will have had shingles sometime in their lifetime.
Those with a weakened immune system have the greatest risk of getting shingles. These include people who have HIV or AIDS, cancer or being on cancer treatments, being on steroids for another disease, or being on anti-rejection drugs post transplant.
The complications of shingles include post-herpetic neuralgia or chronic pain that persists after the rash is over with. The pain is severe and is caused by damage to the nerve fibers by the virus. Doctors may prescribe antidepressants, anticonvulsant medications or pain medications in order to block the energy of the nerve and control the pain. If you get shingles in your eye, you can suffer from loss of vision which is permanent. More severe complications of shingles involve problems with the neurological system.
You can get hearing or balance difficulties, encephalitis or brain infection and paralysis of the face, depending on where the shingles shows up on the body. Infections of the skin can occur as secondary infections. The infection gets into the blisters and afflicts the skin surrounding the initial rash.
Antiviral drugs are used if the treatment is done early in the course of the infection. These include acyclovir, valacyclovir and famciclovir. Pain medications are used and sometimes Neurontin or amitriptyline is used to block the effects of the pain. Numbing gels or sprays containing lidocaine can be used to topically tackle the pain.