Shingles
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What is Shingles?
Is there any treatment?
What is the prognosis?
What research is being done?
Organizations
Related NINDS Publications and Information
Publicaciones en Español
Additional resources from MEDLINEplus
What is Shingles?
Shingles (herpes zoster) is an outbreak of rash or blisters on the skin that is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox
— the varicella-zoster virus. The first sign of shingles is often burning or tingling pain, or sometimes numbness or itch,
in one particular location on only one side of the body. After several days or a week, a rash of fluid-filled blisters, similar
to chickenpox, appears in one area on one side of the body. Shingles pain can be mild or intense. Some people have mostly
itching; some feel pain from the gentlest touch or breeze. The most common location for shingles is a band, called a dermatome,
spanning one side of the trunk around the waistline. Anyone who has had chickenpox is at risk for shingles. Scientists think
that in the original battle with the varicella-zoster virus, some of the virus particles leave the skin blisters and move
into the nervous system. When the varicella-zoster virus reactivates, the virus moves back down the long nerve fibers that
extend from the sensory cell bodies to the skin. The viruses multiply, the tell-tale rash erupts, and the person now has
shingles.
Is there any treatment? The severity and duration of an attack of shingles can be significantly reduced by immediate treatment with antiviral drugs,
which include acyclovir, valcyclovir, or famcyclovir. Antiviral drugs may also help stave off the painful after-effects of
shingles known as postherpetic neuralgia. Other treatments for postherpetic neuralgia include steroids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and topical agents.
In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved a VZV vaccine (Zostavax) for use in people 60 and older who have had chickenpox.
When the vaccine becomes more widely available, many older adults will for the first time have a means of preventing shingles.
Researchers found that giving older adults the vaccine reduced the expected number of later cases of shingles by half. And
in people who still got the disease despite immunization, the severity and complications of shingles were dramatically reduced.
The shingles vaccine is only a preventive therapy and is not a treatment for those who already have shingles or postherpetic
neuralgia.
What is the prognosis? For most healthy people who receive treatment soon after the outbreak of blisters, the lesions heal, the pain subsides within
3 to 5 weeks, and the blisters often leave no scars. However, shingles is a serious threat in immunosuppressed individuals
— for example, those with HIV infection or who are receiving cancer treatments that can weaken their immune systems. People
who receive organ transplants are also vulnerable to shingles because they are given drugs that suppress the immune system.
A person with a shingles rash can pass the virus to someone, usually a child, who has never had chickenpox, but the child
will develop chickenpox, not shingles. A person with chickenpox cannot communicate shingles to someone else. Shingles comes
from the virus hiding inside the person's body, not from an outside source.
What research is being done? The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and other institutes of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) conduct shingles research in laboratories at the NIH and also support additional research through grants to major medical
institutions across the country. Current research is aimed at finding new methods for treating shingles and its complications.
Select this link to view a list of studies currently seeking patients.
American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA) P.O. Box 850 Rocklin, CA 95677-0850 ACPA@pacbell.net http://www.theacpa.org Tel: 916-632-0922 800-533-3231 Fax: 916-632-3208 |
VZV Research Foundation
[For Research on Varicella Zoster] 24 East 64th Street 5th Floor New York, NY 10021 vzv@vzvfoundation.org http://www.vzvfoundation.org Tel: 212-371-7280 Fax: 212-838-0380 |
National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain P.O. Box 70045 Houston, TX 77270 NFTPain@cwo.com http://www.paincare.org Tel: 713-862-9332 Fax: 713-862-9346 |
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National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
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Last updated July 31, 2008