Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, is a disease that stems from a virus which causes a painful rash with blisters on the skin in a localized area. Unlike with chicken pox, the rash caused by shingles forms in one stripe on the left or the right side of the body or the face. Usually, the symptoms will appear two to four days before the rash breaks out, and you may feel pain in the area and slight tingling, but other than that, there are few symptoms of the shingles.
Shingles will most likely heal in two to four weeks, but some people can develop nerve pain which can last for months or even years. This is called postherpetic neuralgia. Unlike chicken pox, shingles are more common in adults than in children, especially in adults whose immune systems are weak, whether that is due to stress, medication, injury, or some other illness such as AIDS. Good news is that most people who develop shingles will not get them again later in life, however, it is still possible to have shingles break out more than once.
How Do Shingles Occur?
Since shingles and chickenpox are both caused by the same virus, also known as varicella zoster, shingles happen when the virus which is dormant in your body reactivates. The virus reactivates when your immune system becomes weak by a disease, stress, or aging. Also, some medicines may trigger the awakening of the virus. It is important to remember that once the virus becomes active again you cannot get chicken pox again, only shingles.
Is It Contagious?
The good thing is that you cannot get shingles from another person who has them. However, there is a chance that a person with shingles can transmit the virus to the person who does not have the varicella zoster virus dormant in their body, that is, a person who has never had chickenpox. This means that, yes, you CAN get chicken pox from a person who has shingles if you have not been vaccinated against it. However, you CANNOT get shingles from a person who has chicken pox.
Who Can Get Shingles?
Any person who has had chicken pox earlier in life can develop shingles. If you are older than fifty, you have a greater chance of getting it than someone who is younger, also, if your immune system is weak, you are in a higher risk group.
You can get a vaccine for shingles which will lower the chance of you getting them, and prevent the long-lasting pain that can happen after shingles. If, however, you do get it, being vaccinated lowers the chance of pain, and speeds up the healing process.
There was a lot of data from the Shingles Prevention Trial which encompassed 38 thousand people of over 60 years of age. The study showed that individuals who got the vaccine for shingles had a 50 percent lower chance of getting the ailment after the follow-up period of three years. The vaccinated patients who did get shingles had experienced tremendously less pain than the participants who received a placebo shot. The study has also shown that the vaccine was less effective in the individuals who were older than 69 years of age.
How Long Does It Last and What Are the Complications?
Shingles will usually go away within three to five weeks, however, some complications may happen. Some of the complications include:
- Bacterial infection
- Motor involvement, which includes weakness, specifically in motor herpes zoster
- Eye issues. Trigeminal nerve involvement must be treated as early and as aggressively as possible, as herpes ophthalmicus can result in blindness
- Postherpetic neuralgia – chronic pain which follows shingles
- Zoster sine herpete – pain that occurs along the path of a spinal nerve. Shingles can reactivate this condition
- Cranial neuropathies – damage or disease affecting the nerves
- Myelitis – infection or the inflammation of the gray matter or white matter in the spinal cord
- Aseptic meningitis – the inflammation of the layers which line the brain (meninges)
- Polyneuritis – nerve inflammation
- Partial facial paralysis – also known as Bell’s palsy
- Encephalitis – a sudden onset inflammation of the brain
- Infection of the fetus if a woman is pregnant
- Increased risk of cancer