SHINGLES VIRUS

Shingles is a reactivation of the herpes zoster virus (varicella-zoster virus, or VZV). This same virus causes the childhood illness chickenpox. The chickenpox virus (varicella) remains in a dormant state in the body in the root of nerves that control sensation. In about 1 out of 5 people, the virus "wakes up," often many years after the chickenpox infection. The virus then travels along a sensory nerve into the skin causing a painful rash known as shingles.

• Shingles is derived from the Latin and French words for belt or girdle, reflecting distribution of the rash in a broad band. This band is usually only on one side of the body and represents a dermatome—the area that a single sensory nerve supplies in the skin.
• Anyone who has had the chickenpox infection or vaccine can get the herpes zoster virus that causes shingles. Older people and those with cancer, HIV, or organ transplants have a decreased ability to fight off infection and a greater chance of getting shingles.
• The majority of people with shingles, however, are healthy. No special tests need to be done to see if your immune system is strong.
  

What are symptoms of shingles? How long does shingles last?

Before a rash is visible, the patient may notice several days to a week of burning pain and sensitive skin. Before the rash is visible, it may be difficult to determine the cause of the often severe pain. Shingles start as small blisters on a red base, with new blisters continuing to form for three to five days. The blisters follow the path of individual nerves that comes out of the spinal cord (called a dermatomal pattern). The entire path of the nerve may be involved or there may be areas with blisters and areas without blisters. Generally, only one nerve level is involved. In a rare case, more than one nerve will be involved. Eventually, the blisters pop, and the area starts to ooze. The affected areas will then crust over and heal. The whole process may take three to four weeks from start to finish. On occasion, the pain will be present but the blisters may never appear. This can be a very confusing cause of local pain.

How do you get shingles?

You can only get shingles if you have had chickenpox.

But if someone has shingles, then the watery stuff from the blisters can give someone else chicken pox if that person hasn't had it.

You can't catch the shingles virus through the air when someone coughs or sneezes like you can with chickenpox.

The virus may become active again if a person is very stressed at some time later in life or has had a lot of illness which has overworked the body's immune system.

[The immune system is like an army of cells in the body which rushes to fight off any germs that try to get into the body].