Herpes zoster or herpes zoster is a nerve fiber and skin disease that is caused by the virus Varicella zoster. It is also the causative agent of chickenpox and is called type 3 herpes.
The causes of herpes zoster
After a person has chickenpox in childhood, the virus can go into a dormant state (latent form), "hiding" in the nerve cells of the spinal cord or intervertebral nerve nodes. The incubation period of herpes zoster lasts several decades, and the following factors contribute to the "awakening" of Varicella zoster:
- decreased immunity (including with HIV and after taking specific medications - corticosteroids, chemotherapy );
- stress;
- transplantation of bone marrow and other organs;
- radiation therapy;
- oncological diseases (especially lymphogranulomatosis, leukemia).
Most often symptoms of herpes zoster appear in elderly patients.
Shingles and herpes of the lips are caused by different types of virus, although the rashes in both cases are very similar. And the first, unlike the second, is not transmitted by contact with the patient.
Symptoms of herpes zoster
So, the "awakened" virus begins to hit the nerve trunks, and strictly on them on the skin there are characteristic eruptions. Before this, the patient complains of general malaise and fever. The skin begins to tingle and itch, then bubbles appear, filled with liquid. The rash is accompanied by subcutaneous pain and occurs, as a rule, only on one side of the body.
Forms of shingles
Depending on which nerves are affected, the herpes zoster has the following forms:
- Ganglion - the rash usually appears on the chest, in the ribs.
- Eye and ear - the virus attacks the triple node, the rashes focus on the mucous membrane of the nose and eyes, the skin of the face or on the auricle and around it.
- Gangrenous or necrotic - the rash is accompanied by tissue necrosis with the formation of scars; to a viral infection
attached bacterial. - Abortive - there is no rash, just like itching, pain.
- Hemorrhagic - the vesicles are filled with blood.
- Meningoencephalitic form - accompanied by brain damage (symptoms - headache, photophobia, nausea) and unlike other forms has a poor prognosis (60% mortality).
Is herpes zoster infected?
Infect herpes zoster only children and adults who have not been sick before with chickenpox . As a result, the virus manifests itself in the form of a common chicken pox. At a stage when new rashes stopped appearing, and the old ones were covered with crusts, herpes zoster is not usually transmitted.