Shingles Runs In Families

May 22, 2008

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Analysis of patients who went to a clinic, who had a diagnosis of shingles, showed that you are more likely to get shingles if a relative has had the disease. The more relatives that have had shingles the higher your risk.

Shingles is a miserable painful skin disease. The first symptoms are usually a headache and a general feeling of being unwell, and then usually pain, tingling, and itching, though numbness can also occur. Then a rash and blistering of the skin develops. The skin is very sensitive to touch and even a gentle wind on the skin can be very painful. Usually the affected area is only on one side of the body. The most commonly affected areas are at the waist and the neck, face and scalp, though it can occur anywhere. Shingles usually lasts for about a month in a person who has a healthy immune system.

Getting treatment as soon as possible will shorten the length of the outbreak. Also rapid treatment will reduce the risk of postherpetic neuralgia, which is where the skin remains painful and sensitive for months and can in some cases have other neurological symptoms.

Shingles is the reactivation of the chickenpox virus (Herpes zoster or Varicella zoster virus). After getting chickenpox some of the virus may stay in an inactive state in nerves (latent). In some people, at a later time, some trigger reactivates the virus and the result is shingles. You have to have had chickenpox to get shingles. A person who has not had chickenpox, if they get infected by a person who has shingles blisters, will get chickenpox.

There is a vaccine called Zostavax that is currently approved for persons who are 60 years or older.

It is likely that particularly for those with a first degree relative who has had shingles that the vaccine will be offered to those younger than 60.

I suspect that I have quite a risk of getting shingles since I have relatives who have had it. Plus when I had chicken pox as a kid I had very mild symptoms, which could mean that my body did not mount a strong immune response, so I probably have nasty little viruses sitting in my nerves waiting to get activated.

The study is in Archives of Dermatology

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