Can You Get Shingles Again in the Same Spot

Overview

Shingles rash on torso and back. — Shingles is a rash that develops into blisters lasting days or weeks.

What is shingles?

Shingles (canker zoster) is a viral infection that causes an outbreak of a painful rash or blisters on the skin. It'southward caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is the aforementioned virus that causes chickenpox. The rash virtually often appears every bit a band of rashes or blisters in i area of your body.

Where does shingles come from?

When you have chickenpox every bit a child, your body fights off the varicella-zoster virus and the concrete signs of chickenpox fade away, simply the virus always remains in your trunk. In adulthood, sometimes the virus becomes active again. This time, the varicella-zoster virus makes its second appearance in the form of shingles.

How common is shingles?

Most 1 million cases of shingles are diagnosed every year in the U.South. The take a chance of shingles increases as you lot get older, with about one-half the cases occurring in people over the age of l. Shingles develops in virtually 10% of people who accept had chickenpox at an earlier fourth dimension in their lives.

Who is at risk for getting shingles?

People who have had chickenpox who are more than likely to develop shingles include those:

With a weakened allowed system (such every bit people with cancer, HIV, organ transplant recipients or those receiving chemotherapy).
Over the age of 50.
Who take been ill.
Who have experienced trauma.
Who are under stress.

The chickenpox virus doesn't leave your body later on you take chickenpox. Instead, the virus stays in a portion of your spinal nerve root called the dorsal root ganglion. For the majority of people, the virus stays there quietly and doesn't cause problems. Researchers aren't ever sure why the virus gets reactivated, but this typically occurs at times of stress.

Tin you lot get shingles more than in one case?

Yes, you can get shingles more than one time. One of the biggest myths about shingles is that it can only happen once. This isn't true. Y'all tin can have more than than i episode. If you get shingles again, you usually don't go the rash in the same identify.

Symptoms and Causes

What causes shingles?

Shingles is acquired by the varicella-zoster virus, the aforementioned virus that causes chickenpox.

What are the symptoms of shingles?

Early symptoms of shingles may include:

Fever.
Chills.
Headache.
Feeling tired.
Sensitivity to light.
Stomach upset.

Other signs and symptoms that announced a few days after the early symptoms include:

An itching, tingling or called-for feeling in an area of your pare.
Redness on your peel in the afflicted expanse.
Raised rash in a small area of your skin.
Fluid-filled blisters that break open then scab over.
Balmy to severe pain in the area of skin affected.

How long does a shingles outbreak final?

It can accept 3 to five weeks from the time you begin to feel symptoms until the rash totally disappears.

First, a few days earlier the rash appears, you may feel hurting in an surface area on your skin. The pain is described as itching, burning, stabbing or shooting. This unremarkably happens before the rash comes.
Next, the raised rash appears as a ring or a patch, commonly on one side of your body. The rash usually appears effectually your waistline or on one side of your face, cervix, or on the torso (chest/belly/back), simply not always. It can occur in other areas including your artillery and legs.
Within three to four days, the rash develops into red, fluid-filled, painful, open up blisters.
Usually, these blisters begin to dry out and crust over inside about x days.
The scabs articulate upward well-nigh two to iii weeks later.

Do you lot always get the typical rash if you lot take shingles?

Occasionally, some people don't get a rash. If you take any of the other symptoms of shingles (fifty-fifty without a rash), come across your healthcare provider sooner rather than after. There are constructive treatments you can take early for shingles. Even if you don't have shingles, seeing your healthcare provider volition help y'all get your condition diagnosed and treated.

Why does shingles appear mostly on one side or in one surface area of your body?

The virus travels in specific nerves, so you lot volition often see shingles occur in a band on one side of your body. This band corresponds to the area where the nerve transmits signals. The shingles rash stays somewhat localized to an area. It doesn't spread over your whole torso. Your torso is a common area, equally is your face up.

Is shingles contagious?

Someone with shingles can't spread shingles to another person, only they can spread chickenpox. The varicella-zoster virus is spread through direct skin-to-pare contact with the fluid that oozes from the blisters. Shingles is rarely spread by breathing in the varicella-zoster virus the way airborne viruses are spread. If your rash is in the blister phase, stay abroad from those who oasis't had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine and keep your rash covered.

How long are y'all contagious if yous have shingles?

If y'all take shingles, you're contagious until the rash is dried and crusted over. The varicella-zoster virus tin only crusade chickenpox in someone who has never had chickenpox or hasn't been vaccinated confronting chickenpox.

Diagnosis and Tests

How is shingles diagnosed?

Shingles can be diagnosed by the fashion the rash is distributed on your body. The blisters of a shingles rash usually appear in a band on one side of your body. Shingles also may exist diagnosed in a laboratory using scrapings or a swab of the fluid from the blisters.

Management and Treatment

How is shingles treated?

At that place is no cure for shingles merely there are treatments for managing the symptoms.

Antiviral medications

These drugs may ease the discomfort and make the symptoms cease sooner, particularly if you start them inside 72 hours of the first sign of shingles. They may too help foreclose the pain that can happen months and years later on, called postherpetic neuralgia. These medications include:

Acyclovir (Zovirax®).
Famciclovir (Famvir®).
Valacyclovir (Valtrex®).

Over-the-counter pain medications

These medications include the following and may be effective in relieving pain:

Acetaminophen (Tylenol®).
Ibuprofen (Motrin®, Advil®).

Other medications

Antibacterial drugs may be prescribed if you develop a bacterial infection due to the shingles rash. Anti-inflammatory drugs similar prednisone may be prescribed if shingles affects your eyes or other parts of your face up.

If you lot have more than one area of blisters, what can y'all look if you go to the hospital?

It's of import to annotation that most people with shingles don't need to be in a hospital, but if you do:

You'll be in a contact isolation room.
The door will be kept closed.
A sign on your door will remind people who have never had chickenpox or the vaccine not to enter.
The sign will besides remind staff to article of clothing gowns and gloves when entering the room.

If you have shingles in only one area of your torso that can't exist kept covered, what can yous look for your hospital stay?

You volition exist in a contact isolation room.
The sign on the door volition remind staff to wearable gowns and gloves when entering the room.

What are the complications of shingles?

Subsequently the shingles rash has disappeared, yous might continue to have nerve pain in that same area. Postherpetic neuralgia can terminal for months or years and become quite severe.

More than x% of people who get shingles develop postherpetic neuralgia. Researchers don't know why some people get postherpetic neuralgia and others don't. It may be that fretfulness become more sensitive or that the virus may be invading and dissentious the central nervous organization.

Other complications include:

Other types of nerve problems like numbness or itching.
A bacterial infection of the shingles rash.
Eye and ear inflammation if the rash is virtually these organs.

How is postherpetic neuralgia treated?

Treatments include lotions or creams (such equally lidocaine or capsaicin) and/or other medications non specifically used for hurting, such equally antidepressants or drugs for epilepsy. Regular pain relievers are non usually effective for this type of pain.

If your pain doesn't lessen, you might attempt therapies like nerve blocks or steroid injections about the expanse where the nerves exit the spine. Your provider might advise an implantable nervus stimulator device for severe, ongoing pain that hasn't responded to other treatments.

Prevention

Is a vaccine bachelor to prevent shingles?

Two vaccines are available in the Usa to reduce your chance of developing shingles and postherpetic neuralgia. One vaccine, Zostavax®, has been available since 2006. The second vaccine, Shingrix®, has been bachelor since 2017. Shingrix is recommended as the preferred vaccine by the Informational Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical and public health experts.

Shingrix (recombinant zoster vaccine) is given every bit a 2-dose shot in your upper arm. Y'all should receive the second dose (shot) two to 6 months after receiving the first. Shingrix has been shown to be more 90% effective in preventing shingles and postherpetic neuralgia. Its effectiveness remains to a higher place 85% for at least four years subsequently receiving the vaccine.

Who should exist vaccinated with Shingrix?

The Shingrix vaccine is recommended for those fifty years of historic period and older who are in good wellness.

You should get the Shingrix vaccine even if:

You've had shingles already.
You've been previously vaccinated with Zostavax (a live zoster vaccine). If you've been vaccinated with Zostavax, wait at least viii weeks before getting vaccinated with Shingrix.
You don't know for sure if you lot've always had chickenpox.

Ask your healthcare provider, who knows your entire health history if getting this vaccine is right for you.

Who should not be vaccinated with Shingrix?

You shouldn't receive the Shingrix vaccine if you:

Accept ever had a astringent allergy to this vaccine or whatever ingredient in this vaccine.
Are breastfeeding (chestfeeding) or pregnant.
Currently have shingles.
Are ill and take a loftier fever.
Have tested negative for immunity to varicella-zoster virus (go the chickenpox vaccine instead).

Ask your healthcare provider if the benefits of getting the vaccine outweigh whatever potential risks.

What serious side effects should you lot scout for after getting the Shingrix vaccine?

Serious side effects from vaccines are extremely rare. However, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room correct abroad if you lot experience any of the post-obit inside minutes to hours after receiving Shingrix:

Swelling of your face or pharynx.
Difficulty breathing.
Hives.
Fast heartbeat.
Dizziness, lightheadedness, weakness.

If you've had shingles recently, how long should you await earlier getting the Shingrix vaccine?

You can get the Shingrix vaccine any fourth dimension later on the shingles rash has gone away.

Is the Zostavax vaccine however being used?

Yes. The CDC, withal, recommends Zostavax for adults age 60 and older, but not routinely for people anile l to 59. Zostavax is given as a unmarried-dose shot versus the 2-dose shot for Shingrix. Zostavax is less constructive than Shingrix in preventing shingles (51% vs more than than 90%) and postherpetic neuralgia (67% vs more than than 90%).

You can consider Zostavax if you are allergic to Shingrix or if Shingrix is unavailable because of supply shortage and yous want some immediate protection from a possible case of shingles and/or postherpetic neuralgia. Because it's a weakened live vaccine, it may be dangerous if y'all have cancer, HIV, or take steroids, chemotherapy or other medications that suppress your immune system. Ask your healthcare provider if the Zostavax vaccine is an option for you.

Do y'all need to stay abroad from children, people who are significant, have cancer or anyone with a weak allowed organisation after you become the Zostavax vaccine?

According to the CDC, it's safety to be effectually babies and immature children, pregnant women or anyone with a weakened allowed system after you get the Zostavax vaccine. Fifty-fifty though the Zostavax vaccine contains a weakened live varicella-zoster virus, the CDC says there'southward no documented example of a person getting chickenpox from someone who has received the Zostavax vaccine. And remember: You can't get shingles unless you've already had chickenpox.

If y'all have previously received the Zostavax vaccine, how long should you wait before getting the Shingrix vaccine?

If you've previously received the Zostavax vaccine, the CDC recommends waiting at least 8 weeks earlier getting the Shingrix vaccine.

If you become the shingles vaccine, does this mean you're 100% protected from getting shingles?

No. Just like most vaccines, getting vaccinated with a shingles vaccine doesn't provide 100% protection from disease. However, getting the shingles vaccine reduces your risk of developing shingles.

Fifty-fifty if you lot do develop shingles, you lot'll be more probable to have a balmy example. Also, you'll exist much less probable to develop postherpetic neuralgia, a painful status that can follow a shingles outbreak.

If y'all have a medical condition that suppresses your immune system, should you get the shingles vaccine?

Having a weakened allowed system tin can increase the likelihood of getting shingles, so that's even more of a reason to go the shingles vaccine. Even so, yous must go the Shingrix vaccine, which is not fabricated from a live virus. (The older — and still available — vaccine, Zostavax, is made from a weakened alive virus and shouldn't be given to people with weakened immune systems.)

Outlook / Prognosis

What should you expect if you become shingles?

Shingles can be a very painful condition. If you call up you have the symptoms of shingles, see your healthcare provider right away. Starting antiviral medications early can ease your discomfort and finish symptoms earlier.

A better arroyo to shingles is to have activeness and do what yous can to lessen your risk of getting it. If you lot've never had shingles in the past, talk to your healthcare provider nearly getting the shingles vaccine. If you've never had chickenpox, talk with your healthcare provider well-nigh getting the chickenpox vaccine.

Is shingles dangerous or even fatal?

If shingles involves your middle, information technology tin can lead to blindness. In rare cases, shingles can lead to hearing problems, pneumonia, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) and even death.

When is it safe to return to work if you have shingles?

You can return to work when you lot feel well enough to return and you're no longer contagious. This means that your blistered rash has dried up and scabbed over. This commonly takes up to 10 days from the time the rash outset appears.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't having chickenpox earlier in life provide immunity against having shingles later?

After having chickenpox, your body doesn't rid your system of the virus. Instead, the virus stays in a portion of the spinal nerve root called the dorsal root ganglion. In well-nigh people, the virus simply stays there quietly and doesn't cause problems. Scientists aren't ever sure why the virus gets active again, simply they know stress can be a cause.

Tin y'all even so develop shingles if you've been vaccinated for chickenpox?

Aye. Despite being vaccinated for chickenpox, you can all the same get shingles. No vaccine is 100% protective, and the effectiveness of vaccines lessens with time. However, people who get the chickenpox vaccine are significantly less likely to develop shingles later in life compared with people who never received the chickenpox vaccine. One contempo 12-year written report found that the number of shingles cases was 72% lower in children who had received the chickenpox vaccine compared with those who didn't.

Tin can you get shingles if y'all oasis't had chickenpox?

No. You can't get shingles if you've never had chickenpox, but yous can go chickenpox from someone who has shingles. If y'all've never had chickenpox and y'all come up into direct contact with the oozing, blister-like rash of someone with shingles, the varicella-zoster virus tin can infect you and you would develop chickenpox.

Once you've had chickenpox, yous could develop shingles at some bespeak in your life. This is because the varicella-zoster virus never fully goes abroad after you lot've had chickenpox. Information technology lies quietly "inactive" in your nerve tissue. Later in life, the virus may become active again and appears as shingles.

Tin can you get chickenpox more than one time?

It'south rare to get chickenpox twice in your life. One time you've had chickenpox, y'all're unremarkably immune to information technology for the rest of your life. However, information technology'south not totally impossible. If you take a severely weakened immune organisation (because yous've had an organ transplant, HIV or cancer, for example), you lot tin go chickenpox a second time. If y'all've had chickenpox, yous are more probable to get shingles at some point in your life than a echo bout of chickenpox.

Are at that place natural ways to boost your immune system to assist lessen the chances of developing shingles?

Stress is a risk factor for developing shingles, then limiting your stress can be helpful. Try meditation, yoga or other relaxation methods.

Other things you lot can do include:

Swallow a healthy diet.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Exercise regularly.
Aim for seven to 9 hours of slumber each night.
Don't fume or use tobacco products.

These are all tips for an overall good for you lifestyle, non merely for reducing your chance of getting shingles.

What is the difference betwixt canker zoster and varicella-zoster?

Herpes zoster is simply another medical name for shingles. Varicella-zoster is the virus that causes both shingles and chickenpox.

Although both diseases produce a rash, measles and shingles are completely different and unrelated diseases. Shingles is caused past the varicella-zoster virus and measles is acquired by the rubeola virus.

Can you get shingles from the COVID-xix vaccine?

There take been a few reports of shingles happening in people who were vaccinated against COVID-19. The varicella-zoster virus was reactivated in these people.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

If you've had chickenpox, y'all're at adventure of developing shingles later in life. Shingles causes a rash that is contagious and painful. The disease can take serious complications. The best thing you can do to reduce your risk is to get the shingles vaccine. The vaccines are safe and constructive.

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Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/11036-shingles