Shingles Essay

Shingles is a painful disease that is caused by the same virus that causes the chicken pox. The shingles virus affects about 1 million people per year in the United States alone. Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, occurs in people who have already had chickenpox when they were younger. Shingles causes a painful skin rash that usually appears in a band, strip or a small area on one side of the face or body. Most individuals who develop shingles are older than 50 years or have other medical problems like cancer because procedures like chemotherapy weaken your immune system. People who are immune-suppressed from medications they take, like steroid medications are also vulnerable because their immune system is weak, letting the shingles virus take over. Many things can weaken your immune system, for example having chronic diseases like diabetes, lupus, or HIV. Having poor nutrition, getting an injury, or having an organ transplant can all increase the chances of letting the shingles virus reactivate. Shingles and chickenpox is caused by a certain form of herpes virus. The virus that causes cold sores and herpes isn’t the same as the virus that causes shingles. Chicken pox never actually leaves the body after fully recovering from it; it actually remains in the nerve tissue until later forming into shingles. Chickenpox goes into a dormant sate and waits to be woken up and later causes shingles. It is still not fully understood why chickenpox reactivates to cause shingles. If someone has shingles and you come in contact with them you won’t receive shingles. There is a possibility though that if you haven’t gone to the doctor to get your chickenpox vaccine, and you have never gotten chickenpox before and you come in contact with a pe...

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...annually, aged-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. population. The incidence among young people 60 years of age and older is about 10 cases per 1,000 U.S. population annually. There are an estimated one million cases of herpes zoster in the United States every year.

Several medicines, acyclovir (Zovirax), valacyclovir (Valtrex), and famciclovir (Famvir), are available to treat shingles. Treatment should be started as soon as possible after the rash appears, to help shorten how long the illness lasts and how severe the illness is. Pain medicine may also help lessen discomfort. Shingles vaccine was recently recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to reduce the risk of shingles and pain from shingles in people 60 years old or older. There are antiviral drugs that can help to lower the severity of shingles and shorten the length of time you have shingles.