Shingles Treatment Information and Education

The chicken pox disease is not so innocent after all, at least the virus that is behind this disease. Though modern science, particularly medical science has progressed rapidly in the last couple of decades, but even today, a virus once it makes the human body its host, cannot be permanently removed from the system. This is what makes shingles treatment so difficult - the virus that causes chicken pox, herpes zoster, remains in the body in a dormant state, even after the chicken pox symptoms have been treated. It is only years later that the herpes zoster becomes active again, and when it does, it causes the shingles disease and not chicken pox. But the good news in terms of shingles treatment is, most people who had the chicken pox disease will not have shingles, even though the virus may remain in the body. It happens in about 20% of all cases. In most cases, the shingles disease occurs in older people (remember the virus is making a comeback), but there are cases where even the young can become victims. The nature of the virus at work makes treatment for shingles very difficult. This opens up an interesting issue. Suppose a person does not get chicken pox when he is young and is instead affected by the herpes zoster virus at an advanced age – what will he get then? Chicken pox or shingles? And here’s the answer – he will get chicken pox and not shingles. The symptoms of the shingles disease are somewhat similar to chicken pox and somewhat dissimilar. It all starts with a sense of burning in the affected skin parts that may stay on for a few days, and then the blisters that are red in color begin to appear. Like chicken pox, the blisters of shingles are also filled with pus. There may also be a lot of itching and tingling sensation on the blisters and the region may also feel numb. Since the herpes zoster virus stays dormant in the nerves of the body, the blisters usually appear on the nerve path that appear from the spinal cord. Since the virus retreats shortly after breaking the skin and causing blisters, an effective shingles treatment will work to prevent the recurrence of the virus and try to keep the virus in it's dormant state. The shingles disease may also come with headache, fever and a feeling of chill in the air. Stomach upset is another symptom of the disease. In an advanced stage when the blisters have started to dry-up, the region will look crusted. The blisters will start to break up. Though the disease is not infectious, but watch out when the person has entered this stage, because the crusted condition can cause some harm. There is no unanimity on this one – research is still being held on this issue. But it is estimated that the herpes zoster virus is able to make a comeback when the natural immunity of the body has become considerably weaker. The immunity becomes weak when a person has been suffering from some disease, is taking some medicine and of course with age. Other reasons that may trigger off a reactivate the virus include fatigue, stress, treatments such as radiation therapy, diseases like cancer and others like this.