Herpes And Zoster

Patients with the past history of chicken pox can fall prey to Zoster. It is also a viral disease which is the next step after cure of herpes. It is also famous by the name...

Patients with the past history of chicken pox can fall prey to Zoster. It is also a viral disease which is the next step after cure of herpes. It is also famous by the name SHINGLES or Zoster. The virus that causes chicken pox is also the cause of Zoster. When the chicken pox get cured, the virus remains inside the body deep within the nerve cells as dormant virus. The reactivation of virus results in Zoster which can be painful. The chances are 20% to fall prey to Zoster if one has passed the chicken pox stage. It’s a onetime disease.

The revival of virus is not known yet, means how does it reactivate itself. The implicit cause for zoster to develop, can be weak immunity or reduced resistance power of the body to fight the infections which lead to multiplication of virus inside the body. It is more commonly found in people above fifty years but some cases have been observed among children also. Zoster may be triggered by:

Stress
Trauma
Other forms of illness

As we have studied that weak immunity may lead to Zoster. And body immunity gets weaken by various factors, such as regular usage of drugs, harmful radiations, chemotherapy, organ transplantation, surgeries and deadly disease like AIDS and Cancer. The prevalence of these diseases can lead to a susceptible body Zoster. If compared with chickenpox it is less dangerous but can be transmitted from one person to another via skin contact who already has the virus. If the irus enters the other person body, he might develop chickenpox, not zoster. Zoster only develops after a person becomes susceptible to chickenpox and the virus gets re-activated in the nerve cells.

The pain caused by zoster is more and itching is less than chicken pox. A person may go through burning sensation, itching, he may be extremely sensitive on skin, tingling. The sensation for tingling may be there for 3-4 days before a red rash may replace the itchy area. The zoster rash affects only one part of the body. Headache, pain and fever may e followed by zoster. The rash is followed clusters of blister which may last for few weeks and slowly and gradually they may turn into yellow before they burst or disappear. Due to blister pain can also be felt for which doctor may prescribe medicine to get rid of pain. Zoster mainly attack buttocks and trunks. Face, legs and arms, tip of nose and even eye can be effected. Special attention must be taken for the blister surrounding eye as eye is a sensitive area.

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