Shingles is a very common disease that is also caused after chickenpox more often. Shingles can cause to anyone who had chickenpox in the past and is a very common disease that can cause to anyone at any time. Shingles is also synonymously known as “herpes zoster” and is caused by the varicella-zoster virus which also the cause virus of chicken pox. You should also note that this type of herpes is totally different to that of sexual herpes that is caused as a result of a different virus.
Shingles can be very painful and it is a rash that is caused by the VZV as mentioned earlier. After a patient recovers from chickenpox, the virus may reside in the body without the patients’ knowledge. In normal conditions, the virus does not cause any problems however the virus can reappear even after a longer time may be after years causing shingles. Shingles usually starts as a rash on one side of the face or the body. The rash can start as blisters that are small that can scab after three or four days. The rash can stay long for even four weeks until it disappear. Before the rash develops, it can cause pain, itching and tingling in the area which is to develop the rash. Other symptoms can be high fever, headaches, chills and stomach aches. If you have these symptoms it is better to visit the doctor as soon as possible for further investigations and medications. However fever, headaches etc. can be as a result of many other reasons, therefore, the symptoms are not good enough to predict that it is shingles at any cost.
As per the reports, shingles do not have long term effects as such. However, there are few rare cases that shingles have led to pneumonia, hearing problems, vision related problems as well as permanent blindness. However, these are very rare situations and the probability of occurrence is at a very lower level that the risk is low.
As stated above shingles are very common and the estimated shingle patients per year in the United States of America is approximately at a level of one million which can be also considered to be enormous. Therefore these statistics proves that shingles is a common disease caused by a particular virus and there are no long-term effects from shingles except some rare situations.
Anyone can get shingles. Anyone who have recovered from chickenpox may develop shingles including children. The risk depends on the age. The older you are higher the risk and the pain is. Shingles is a very common in those 50 and older and the risk of getting shingles can increase as a person grow older. People with immunity problems may be at a higher risk of shingles as their immune system is not supportive to fight back against the virus.
In overall shingles is a very common disease that is painful with no long term effects as such.
