Shingles is a disease that can cause a very painful rash to appear on the skin. This rash often causes blisters that can appear anywhere on the body (but most commonly wrap around the back to one side of the breastbone). Shingles, which is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, typically affects the elderly.
Shingles and Chickenpox
Shingles can be traced to a previous infection of chickenpox. This is because shingles and chickenpox are both caused by the herpes zoster virus. Although among children it is commonly thought that once you have chickenpox you are "immune" to chickenpox (and this is largely true), it also makes you susceptible to developing shingles later in life.
Herpes Zoster
After a chickenpox infection has passed, the herpes zoster virus is able to lie dormant in the body. This means that the virus is not gone, but is instead hiding within cells, primarily within nerve clusters called ganglia. Because it is no longer actively dividing and infecting cells, the immune system is unable to detect it.
Herpes Zoster and Shingles
In some people, this dormant virus can reactivate as the person gets older. Although it is not clear as to why this happens, it is thought that shingles occurs in the elderly because the immune system has weakened. The virus, when reactivated, travels along the nerves until it gets to the skin, where it causes a painful rash.
Shingles Treatment
Although shingles cases often will go away on their own after about three weeks, there are some medications that can speed the recovery process or relieve the symptoms. Antiviral medications, such as acyclovir, famciclovir and valacyclovir can all help fight off the reactivated virus. Because shingles can be very painful, patients find that they need narcotic pain relievers (such as a codone drug), numbing agents (such as lidocaine), or anticonvulsants (gabapentin) to reduce the pain.
Shingles Spread
In a sense, shingles is not contagious. A person with shingles cannot give shingles to someone else. On the other hand, while a shingles patient still has open sores from the virus, he can give chickenpox to someone who has not already been infected with herpes zoster.
