pleas give info. on shingles

what is shingles . How is it treated

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Shingles, which comes from the Latin word for. "girdle," is a recurrence of the chickenpox virus.  Doctors call it, "zoster." After you recover from chickenpox, the virus often hides out in one of the nerve roots in the spine.  You don;t know it's there until it recurs--often on the chest or abdomnen (hence "girdle") or else on the face, legs, wherever.  It only affects the one side of the body that nerve supplies.  Shingles dries up all by itself in 2-3 weeks.  It can be very uncomfortable, and some elderly people have long-lasting pain, but most people don't.  There are oral antibiotics which, if taken right away, shorten the course a little, though the condition gets better by itself when the person is basically healthy, and most are.

That's a start, anyway.  For more, look at www.dermnet.org.nz.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff