Shingles Can Be a Potentially Serious Disease

Shingles (Herpes Zoster HZ) can be a potentially serious disease. The majority of people who are familiar with shingles know that they can appear at any time. You are at risk for developing shingles if you have a weakened immune system due to cancer, taking certain drugs, stress or age. Unfortunately, no one can predict who or when you might develop shingles. It can start without warning. The older you get, usually 60 or older, the higher risk you are for developing shingles. The first signs of a possible outbreak are itching, tingling and burning or headache. Then the blisters appear running along a nerve line. Shingles occur mostly around the stomach, back and face area. They are only contagious to those who have not had chicken pox. Once the blisters have crusted over, you are no longer contagious.

What a lot of people do not know about shingles is that they can lead to a more serious disease than just the rashes, blisters and pain. More common problems that develop from shingles are scarring or bacterial skin infections. Some more serious complications that can occur are:

Long-term pain - Postherpetic Neuralgia (PHN) is a complication that can cause long-term nerve pain. This is a more common complication from shingles. Your pain level can be mild to severe and will have to be treated with more than one medicine. This pain can last months or years. The older you are, the more at risk you are for PHN. If you develop PHN, the pain will hurt more and last longer. In addition to the constant pain, PHN can cause facial nerve problems or headaches.

Muscle weakness - If a blistery rash spreads over a large portion of your body, this rash can affect the heart, lungs, pancreas, joints, liver or intestinal area. This is called Disseminated Zoster. If the infection spreads to the nerves that control your movement, you could develop temporary muscle weakness.

Risk for vision loss - If you develop a rash on the forehead, cheek, nose and around one eye, you may be at risk of losing your vision. This type of shingles is called Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus. Other signs that could lead to possible vision loss could be inflammation, pain and loss of feeling in one or both eyes. If you develop any of these symptoms, see your doctor immediately.

Loss of movement in facial nerves - You could develop Ramsey Hunt Syndrome, which is a loss of movement in your facial nerves. You can have severe ear pain, a rash around the mouth, face, neck, ear and scalp. Symptoms could include dizziness, ringing in your ears or hearing loss. You could also develop mouth sores and loss of taste.

Allodynia - Allodynia is pain the comes from the slightest touch or breeze over your skin or even contact with clothing.

If you notice any of the warning signs of shingles, see your doctor as quickly as you can to start treatment. The quicker you start treatment the better chances you have of not developing any of these more serious complications from shingles.