What Causes Shingles?
Shingles is a painful rash caused by the chickenpox virus, herpes zoster, also referred to as varicella-zoster. Twenty percent of people will develop this disease in their lifetime, though the current shingles vaccine may well alter that high incidence. Those who have normal immune systems and experience shingles have almost a ten-percent incidence of serious complications. Since this disease usually strikes the elderly, some of whom have weakened immune systems, their rate of complications is often much higher.
Shingles from Childhood Chickenpox
For unknown reasons, certain stresses trigger this latent chickenpox virus to activate and reinfect the patient. However, instead of getting chickenpox twice, the virus, which was latent and hidden so long in nerve tissue, moves out along a sensory nerve ending and to the skin. Most shingles cases do not occur until after age 50, but if you had chickenpox in your lifetime, you are at risk for shingles later.
Shingles Symptoms
A patient senses strange itching or pain even before there is a rash. These symptoms, and the later developing blisters and raw skin, all appear along a "dermatome." A dermatome is an area of skin supplied by a single sensory nerve. This is why shingles feels like an excruciating, one-sided stripe along the trunk or face; the actual nerve is involved even before the virus reaches the skin.
Can Shingles Pass on Chickenpox?
Since shingles is the chickenpox virus, a susceptible person who has had neither the chickenpox vaccine nor the disease can catch the varicella-zoster virus and have a first case of chickenpox. Suffering through a first bout of chickenpox can be dangerous, especially for a pregnant woman (it can affect the unborn infant), very young children, or someone with an underlying disease such as cancer, AIDS or transplant patients. Chickenpox is also precarious for older teens and young adults who may suffer a dangerous form of pneumonia. Shingles is most contagious when blisters appear, especially when the vesicles are open and draining. Live chickenpox virus is present within this fluid. Keep those at risk away from a shingles patient during this time.
Is Shingles Ever Contagious
Rarely, one person with shingles can somehow trigger another individual (with latent chickenpox in his system) to suddenly flare with their own episode of shingles. This has not been scientifically proven, and no clear reasons for this are known.
Shingles Vaccine
The shingles vaccine, Zostavax, entered the market in 2006. It cannot prevent chickenpox (there is a different vaccine for that) nor cure an outbreak of shingles already causing pain and rash. However, it can prevent outbreaks and the complications they incur. Convincing more people to get the vaccine at age 60 or above would dramatically cut the number of shingle cases. Vaccination dropped the incidence of shingles from 50 percent to less than two percent. Because the vaccine is a weakened live virus, you must avoid those at risk for a first episode of chickenpox for up to ten days after receiving the vaccine.
