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herpes zoster

File:Herpes_zoster_neck.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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herpes zoster

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Also known as herpes zona, shingles, zoster, zona, Herpes zoster, Zoster, postherpetic neuralgia, St. Anthony's Fire

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster or zona, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. Two to four days before the rash occurs, there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Other common symptoms are fever, headache, and tiredness. The rash usually heals within two to four weeks, but some people develop ongoing nerve pain which can last for months or years, a condition called postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). In those with poor immune function

AI overview

Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is a viral infection that causes a painful rash with blisters, usually appearing as a single stripe on one side of the body or face. While the rash typically heals within two to four weeks, some people experience lasting nerve pain that can persist for months or years after the rash disappears.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition (new).name
Shingles
Medical condition (new).synonyms
Herpes zoster
Medical condition (new).image
Herpes zoster neck.png
Medical condition (new).caption
Herpes zoster blisters on the neck and shoulder
Medical condition (new).field
Dermatology
Medical condition (new).symptoms
Painful rash
Medical condition (new).complications
Meningitis, facial nerve palsy, keratitis, postherpetic neuralgia
Medical condition (new).duration
2–4 weeks
Medical condition (new).causes
Varicella zoster virus (VZV)
Medical condition (new).risks
Old age, poor immune function, having had chickenpox before 18 months of age
Medical condition (new).diagnosis
Based on symptoms
Medical condition (new).differential
Herpes simplex, chest pain, insect bites, cutaneous leishmaniasis
Medical condition (new).prevention
Shingles vaccine, chickenpox vaccine (before the child gets chickenpox)
Medical condition (new).medication
Aciclovir (if given early), pain medication
Medical condition (new).frequency
33% (at some point)
Medical condition (new).deaths
6,400 per year (including chickenpox deaths)

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

22,535 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of
symptom or sign
Subclass of
disease
Image
Herpes zoster neck.png
Show 11 more facts
Commons category
Herpes zoster
NCI Thesaurus ID
C71079
health specialty
neurology
ICPC 2 ID
S70
drug or therapy used for treatment
pregabalin
exact match
identifiers.org/doid/DOID:8536
has cause
Human herpesvirus 3
anatomical location
ganglion
ICD-9-CM
053
symptoms and signs
paresthesia
on focus list of Wikimedia project
WikiProject Medicine
Sources (7)

via Wikidata · CC0

~29 min read

Encyclopedic overview

20 sections
Contents
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Face
  • Disseminated shingles
  • Pathophysiology
  • Diagnosis
  • Differential diagnosis
  • Prevention
  • Treatment
  • Analgesics
  • Antivirals
  • Steroids
  • Zoster ophthalmicus
  • Prognosis
  • Epidemiology
  • History
  • Etymology
  • Research
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster or zona, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. Two to four days before the rash occurs, there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Other common symptoms are fever, headache, and tiredness. The rash usually heals within two to four weeks, but some people develop ongoing nerve pain which can last for months or years, a condition called postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). In those with poor immune function the rash may occur widely. If the rash involves the eye, vision loss may occur.

Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV) that also causes chickenpox. In the case of chickenpox, also called varicella, the initial infection with the virus typically occurs during childhood or adolescence. Once the chickenpox has resolved, the virus can remain dormant (inactive) in human nerve cells (dorsal root ganglia or cranial nerves) for years or decades, after which it may reactivate and travel along nerve bodies to nerve endings in the skin, producing blisters. During an outbreak of shingles, exposure to the varicella virus found in shingles blisters can cause chickenpox in someone who has not yet had chickenpox, although that person will not suffer from shingles, at least on the first infection. How the virus subsequently re-activates is not well understood.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “herpes zoster” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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