1. It's the Chicken Pox
The disease "shingles" is also called herpes zoster. In truth, shingles should be called herpes varicella, or chicken pox. One virus causes both diseases. In the case of shingles, the chicken pox virus has come back under an assumed name.
2. It's an Inside Job
The herpes virus family have the capacity to integrate their genetic material into the genetic material of their host. The sequence goes something like this. A child catches the chicken pox by coming in contact with someone else who has the disease, usually another child. The virus spreads all over the child's body with the highest concentration of blisters on the chest. As the child's antibodies fight off the illness, some of the viruses inject their genetic material into the nerve cells near their "pox" (blisters). The genetic material remains there, inactive. But, it may be activated at some point. It leaves the host genetic nucleus and reproduces its entire virus, infecting the nerve cell. The pattern of shingles blisters corresponds to the distribution of the nerve cell. This is the disease called shingles.
3. Pain, Rash and Sometimes Pain Again
Symptoms of shingles start before the rash is visible with pain in the affected nerve. This can be difficult to diagnose as it is pain without apparent cause. The rash is relatively easy to recognize, because it is always on one side and in the pattern of the affected nerve. The most common shingles rash is a line of blisters extending around one side of the chest, corresponding to an intercostal nerve. Following the acute outbreak, some people may develop a neuralgia in the affected nerve. This neuralgia can be quite painful.
4. Can I Catch it?
If one remembers that shingles is actually the chicken pox virus, it's easy to see that only those people who have not had chicken pox or been immunized against chickenpox can be infected by the virus in a shingles blister. Shingles is, indeed, contagious, but a person who "catches" the virus will develop chicken pox, not shingles.
5. Modern Medicine to the Rescue!
There is a vaccine against chicken pox, as well as an antiviral medication that is effective in lessening the severity of both chicken pox and shingles. At one time, most states required all school-age children to be vaccinated. Some states have modified that requirement because of cost. Most infectious disease specialists consider that short-sighted.
