Herpes Zoster Essay

In today’s world, the incidence rate of infectious diseases is declining rapidly. The leading cause of mortality and morbidity are non-infectious diseases, but there still remains a challenge to our society with some of the infectious diseases. Among them Herpes Zoster is one.
Studies have reported that herpes zoster, which is commonly known as Shingles was the cause of the reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) 1, 2,3In early childhood, the VZV causes chicken pox and after infection, it remains latent in sensory neurons for years, until later in life by age 50 years, this virus causes herpes zoster.1,2
It has been noted that the incidence of herpes zoster and its related complications increases with age worldwide. The impact of this

Older age being the most important among them followed by CMI dysfunction, Diabetes, genetic susceptibility, mechanical trauma, stress and white race.4
In one of the studies Asthma, Chronic renal disease and depression were linked to an increase risk of acquiring Herpes zoster by 10%.11

Clinical Manifestations of herpes zoster
The initial infection begins with a prodromal phase with characteristic features of pain, itching, paresthesia, dysesthesias (unpleasant sensations), and sensitivity to touch in any of the dermatomes.6In a few days at the affected site, a unilateral rash begins to appear. .The chest being the most common site, followed by face, lesions typically affects the ophthalmic distribution of the trigeminal nerve.6 This rash subsequently becomes into a vesicle, which resolves into a scab .It has been observed that most patients get complete resolution in 4 to 6 weeks6

Complications
Herpes Zoster is associated with several severe complications and the incidence of these complications increases with