7ĭepression increases the risk of developing shingles because it affects the immune system. The immune system becomes less effective with age and ageing increases the risk of a person developing shingles. When the immune system is compromised the virus re-activates.
Healthy adults do not develop shingles because the immune system keeps the virus dormant. 6 When a person recovers from chickenpox the virus remains in the spinal nerves in a dormant form. Individuals are first exposed to the virus by contracting chicken pox (usually in childhood).
#After effects of shingles inback skin#
Both Latin and Greek terms describe the way the rash creeps across a dermatome (an area of skin supplied by a single spinal nerve). The term herpes zoster is derived from the Greek words herpein meaning to creep, and zoster meaning girdle or belt. The term shingles is derived from the Latin word cingulum, which means belt or girdle. The shingles virus causes the nerve cells on a spinal nerve to become inflamed. 5 Shingles is a painful blistering rash caused by reactivation of varicella zoster virus, the chickenpox virus. Immunisation can reduce the risks of shingles by 75%. 4 People who are at greatest risk of infection can now be immunised. 3 Around 40% of people infected experience ongoing nerve pain lasting three months or longer and one person in a thousand over the age of 70 dies as a result of infection. 2 In England 50,000 people over the age of 70 develop shingles every year. 1 Infection causes a painful blistering rash and it is more common in older people. Shingles is caused by the Herpes Zoster virus and early identification and prompt treatment with antiviral drugs reduces symptoms and leads to reduced risk of ongoing nerve pain.
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