Facts You Need To Know Regarding The Shingles Virus

Shingles is actually the reactivation of the chickenpox virus

. This means that if you've ever suffered from chickenpox, you can get shingles, and the truth is, approximately one million people in the US contract it every year. The shingles virus causes painful blisters which usually occur in a strip or a patch of the body, always in one spot, which is usually along the abdomen or the forehead. And it is excruciatingly painful. Typically it begins with pain - like a headache - for a week or so, and then the excruciating rash develops. Once chickenpox has run its course, the varicella zoster virus retreats to nerve cells within the spinal cord where it may lie dormant for decades. Doctors aren't sure what causes this virus to reactivate, but they note a link between patients with shingles virus and weakened immune systems (either through stress or old age).

The pain caused by the shingles virus is so severe and nonspecific that people often feel they are experiencing a number of other maladies at first. Some patients wonder if they're having a heart attack, kidney stones, gallstones or appendicitis, depending on which nerve is affected. Often people report numbness, itching, tingling and pain before the rash, which is the main symptom of shingles, appears a few days or even a week later.

Once the rash appears, patients are strongly urged to see their doctors immediately to take antiviral medication and discuss pain medicine treatments before the nerves get damaged and the symptoms become chronic.

The worst type of shingles virus complications usually occur when the band of lesions appears on the face. Usually, a single spot cluster appears on the tip of the nose, which is called "Hutchinson's sign," which means that the ophthalmic nerve has been attacked by the virus, which will soon be making its way toward the eye to potentially cause permanent blindness.

"My husband was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for prostate cancer when he developed shingles in his right eye," Julia Hershfield, of Kensington, Maryland describes. "The pain was so bad that he lost all will to live. Shingles finished him." People with severely weakened immune systems may have this painful rash spread to internal organs affecting the lungs, brain and central nervous system, which can even cause death.

The highest risk pool for shingles virus reactivation seems to be people with weakened immune systems from leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, or HIV. Many people enduring radiation or chemotherapy, transplant surgery with immunosuppressive drugs or corticosteroid medication treatments are also more susceptible. More than half of the people who come down with shingles are over age 50, and 5% of the people with shingles are found to have an underlying, undiagnosed cancer. It is highly recommended that people over the age of 60 get the shingles vaccine.

by: Matthew Cullen

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