The name shingles is believed to have come from the Latin word “cingulum”, which means belt or girdle, because shingles typically has a belt-like appearance.

What is it?
Shingles is a disease caused by the herpes virus, which also causes chicken pox (Varicella Zoster virus or VZR). This virus is not related to the STI herpes genitalis. One is immune to shingles after recovery from chickenpox. However, the virus remains dormant in the nerve cells along your spinal cord. Stress or a weakened immune system can reactivate the virus. Shingles is contagious to those who have not had chicken pox. Shingles can be especially severe in people with impaired immunity caused by diseases such as HIV, by drugs used to treat cancer, or in the elderly.

Vaccines are recommended by the CDC for children, teens, and those over sixty depending on your medical history. For more information on the vaccine visit: www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-varicella.pdf

Signs and Symptoms

Early signs:

• Mild flu-like symptoms that can be mistaken for other illnesses
• Isolated pain or numbness over a major nerve, in or under the skin, or a shooting pain around the trunk or down the arm or leg.

Progression:

• Lesions (rash) appear on the skinbetween 1-14 days usually in a band on one side of the body or back, or clustered on one side of the face.
  • If shingles occurs on the face, it can lead to serious and sometimes irreversible hearing and vision problems
• These lesions become fluid-filled blisters in 2-4 days and continue appearing for several more days. These turn from clear to cloudy in appearance as white blood cells attack the virus. Slowly, the blisters crust, scab and heal, most often within a few weeks.
• Pain may be present for a month or longer.
• Pain is individualized, and may range in severity from stinging, burning, itching, to extreme pain for weeks or months after the blisters heal.

If extreme pain persists after the rash heals, the person has a complication known as postherpetic neuralgia but this is rare in young people.

Treatment
Because shingles is a virus it can be treated but not cured. To be effective, treatment must be started within 72 hours. The antiviral drugs Acyclovir, Famcyclovir and Valacyclovir can lessen the initial pain and make the rash go away sooner. Pain relief medications, topical ointments such as Calamine Lotion may help ease symptoms.

Take Home Message

• Be alert for early signs (see above)
• Get treatment within 72 hours (3 days)
• Contact your medical provider or Campus Health Service
• If left untreated, serious complications can occur including: chronic pain, vision or hearing problems or the internal spread of infection.