Shingles Research Paper

Improved Essays
Shingles is a painful, rash that appears on ones skin. The scientific name for shingles is herpes zoster. Shingles is inside every person who had chickenpox at an earlier age. It can flair up at any moment, usually the more likely the older one gets. Shingles can flair up for a number of reasons such as stress and a weak immune system. Shingles and smallpox were thought to be the same thing until William Heberden discovered a way to distinguish the two. In 1942, shingles was discovered to be more prominent in older adults. Later a study showed that of the people who had chickenpox as a child, 50% would have shingles by the age of 85. In 1965, Dr. Hope- Simpson declared that shingles could be prevented or stalled by having a healthy …show more content…
However, there are a few ways to treat it. Different lotions can be used to subside the pain and itching of the rash. Although the pain can be excruciating during the time one has shingles, 80% of people report to have no more pain from shingles after the first year of their first outbreak. Capsaicin cream and topical lidocaine can be used to ease the pain. Acyclovir is the most common drug used to fight shingles. Steroids are used to help short term pain, not for long term pain. There is a vaccine for shingles. It is called Zostavax, and was developed in 2006. It can reduce the risk of getting shingles by 51%. The vaccine can provide protection from the shingles virus for up to five years. There are only a few side effects of the shingles vaccine. They include soreness, swelling, redness in 33% of people who use the vaccine. Also, headaches in 1.4% of people who use the vaccine. Shingles, for the most part, isn't a very severe virus. It can be treated with simple care and no surgery. Most of the time the shingles virus will never come back after the first outbreak. Shingles comes from the chickenpox virus and is put inside one's body when they contract

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Anagestics can also be prescribed to relieve pain. Nerve pain medication can be prescribed to block pain caused by damaged nerves. You should keep the rash dry and clean. People say that calamine lotion soothes the…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Impetigo Research Paper

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Impetigo is a infection of the skin that can be easily transmitted and it forms crusty sores after the blisters detonate. Both impetigo and scabies, which are easily transmitted skin pathogens, are found in moist or tropical places, comparable to tinea capitis and tinea pedis. The tinea impetigo often forms as pustule, a small pimple-like dot that eventually transforms into a blister and ruptures after that. Symptoms of impetigo and also scabies include blisters, pus-filled sores and in some cases dermatitis. A physician is able to diagnose a person just by looking at their skin, however, some tests such as fungal scraping, to have a deeper understanding of how severe the patient's case it.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages

    If a person has shingles they can transmit the varicella zoster to a person that has a low immune system or never been immune to chicken pox. They’ll get the chicken pox…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 1085 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Shingles (herpes zoster) is triggered by the Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV), also called Human Herpesvirus 3 (HHV3), which is also causes chickenpox (varicella) ("Re: Who Discovered the Shingles?"). Over one hundred years, there have been incidents of shingles for different people. The earliest cases of shingles are over two hundred and fifty years old. The rash itself was sometimes confused with smallpox/chickenpox, so it’s a…

    • 1085 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Paper On Shingles

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Shingles 1 JoAnne O’Brien-Wallace Shingles Everest University Mod G: Nervous System, Law and Ethics, Psychology, and Therapeutic Procedures Mr. Todd 3/14/2017 Shingles 2 Shingles is an acute infection which is caused by the reactivation of the latent varicella zoster virus, which mainly affects adults. The cause of the reactivation is unknown, but it is linked to stress, aging, and or immune impairment. Shingles are characterized by the development of painful vesicular skin eruptions that follow the underlying route of the cranial and or the spinal nerves which are inflamed by the virus. Through prompt treatment of antivirals can speed up the healing process and reduce the risk of potherpetic neuralgia. Shingles are caused by the varicella-zoster…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shingles Diseases time lengths vary, from short periods to more elongated and complicated periods. Thus, understanding the stages of a disease is a way to anticipate post-complications. It is indispensable to perceive the development pathway that a disease takes, as occasionally a disease triggers another disease. For instance, chickenpox incubates the first stage of shingles many years later. Generally, shingles spans several decades, from childhood itchy chickenpox to debilitating complication known as post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN).…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This can be a source of frustration for child, who may have no pain but is itchy and is unable to see any visible signs of the cause. A rash will eventually appear, beginning as a groups of pimples on either the trunk or face. The pimples turn into pus-filled blisters that later pop and a crust forms over the pimples and blisters in roughly 7 to 10 days. The healing of the skin begins once the blisters are crusted over within 2 to 4 weeks after the initial…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shingles Research Paper

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Shingles is the inflammation of nerve ganglia, or a clusters of nerve cells in the nervous system, in which the skin erupts into a rash around the middle of the body. This inflammation is usually very painful. Shingles is also known as Herpes Zoster. Shingles is mostly common in older people usually above the age of 50 or 60, however, it is possible to get this disorder at a younger age as well, as it is caused by the same virus as the chickenpox virus, or the varicella-zoster virus. Shingles is more common in females, however males can be affected as much as females can.…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Zostavax Research Paper

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It can be given orally or intravenously. Some of these medications include acyclovir, valacyclovir, and famciclovir. There is only one vaccine in the United States to help prevent shingles. This vaccine is called Zostavax®. It has been used in the states since 2006.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Small Pox History

    • 1688 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The History of Smallpox Smallpox once covered the globe. In Europe alone, 400,000 people a year use to die from it. It used to be extremely infectious. Smallpox started with little brown dots on your skin called macules.…

    • 1688 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shingles

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages

    While there are different treatments and drugs for shingles-associated pain, such as Opioid painkillers, steroid injections, and various topical and skin patch options, there are alternative treatments for shingles. Here you will learn about the different alternative treatments that you can apply to…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Treating Shingles Essay

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Your first exposure of this virus usually as a child leads to the disease popular to all of us, chickenpox. It causes itchy and painful sores spread all over the body. After one acquires and recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the body and remains dormant there for years. For many people it can stay dormant forever. However there are also instances when this virus is reactivated and travels from the nerve fibers to the skin causing shingles.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This virus used to be contagious, differing, and it is often deadly. “The systems that people may experience with small pox, the pain area: is in the back or muscle, skin: rashes, small bumps, blister, scabs, and scars. The whole body you get fever, malaise, and chills, also common headache and vomiting” If smallpox came up with a vaccine it can prevent people from getting this deadly disease but the vaccine’s side effect risk is too high to justify routine vaccination for the people at low risk of exposure to the…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Smallpox: Variola Virus

    • 2308 Words
    • 10 Pages

    There are two rare forms of smallpox: haemorrhagic and malignant. Both types happen to…

    • 2308 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarities and Differences Between Chickenpox and Shingles Chickenpox, also known as varicella and Shingles both are a viral infectious diseases that causes itchy rash and blisters or red spots. The rash of Shingles usually appears on the right or left part of the face or the body in a single line, while Chickenpox occurs in the whole body. Chickenpox is often found in children, while Shingles also known as zoster, is more common among adults. Individuals who have had chickenpox often will not get it again. However, the virus residue dormant in the body and it can stimulate later in life and cause Shingles.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays