Shingles also known as zoster or herpes zoster is a syndrome characterized by a painful, vesicular rash that is usually restricted to a unilateral dermatomal distribution. At times, especially in the immunosuppressed patient, the infection may spread and produce severe systemic illness, with involvement of multiple visceral organs and multiple dermatomes (disseminated zoster). Almost 1 out of every 3 people in the United States will develop shingles
There are an estimated 1 million cases each year in this country. Anyone who has recovered from chickenpox may develop shingles; even children can get shingles. However the risk of disease increases as a person gets older. About half of all cases occur among men and women 60 years old or older.
People who have medical conditions that keep their immune systems from working properly, such as certain cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and people who receive immunosuppressive drugs, such as steroids and drugs given after organ transplantation are also at greater risk of getting shingles.
People who develop shingles typically have only one episode in their lifetime. In rare cases, however, a person can have a second or even a third episode.
Shingles usually has a benign course, but complications may occur, ranging from mild to life threatening. In properly selected patients, early treatment with antivirals and corticosteroids has been shown to decrease the duration of symptoms and to possibly prevent or ameliorate some complications.
What Causes Herpes Zoster
Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the body in a dormant (inactive) state. For reasons that are not fully known, the virus can reactivate years later, causing shingles. Herpes zoster is not caused by the same virus that causes genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease.
The clinical manifestations of herpes zoster can be divided into the preeruptive phase (preherpetic neuralgia), acute eruptive phase, and chronic phase (postherpetic neuralgia).