Saturday 22 November 2014

Is Shingles Contagious and Other Important Questions

Chickenpox is quite a common problem that most of the people would have faced in their younger years. In general, anyone who has suffered from chickenpox is left with a few spots or scars that can be anywhere on their face or neck and they can make it very easy to identify a person who could have suffered from the problem. However, in many cases, there is another souvenir that is left in the body of a person who has suffered from chickenpox and that is the virus of shingles. This disease is a virus caused one in which the person suffering witnesses rashes on their body that are extremely painful. There might be many questions in your mind such as is shingles contagious or other questions but you need to understand right from the beginning.

The first thing that everyone needs to know is that the virus that causes shingles lies in their body after having suffered from pox. Is shingles contagious is a very important question but what is most important thing for you to know is that this virus gets activated in the body of only those pox sufferers whose immunity gets weakened over the years. In answer to the question is shingles contagious, you need to know that the elders who are suffering from this disease might pass it on to the younger ones however, in such a scenario, the virus would cause chickenpox in them. So, the people who are facing this problem cannot pass or spread shingles exactly. Also there are many vaccines for Shingles available in the market for the people who are aware and ready to take preventive measures.

In terms of shingles, for people who haven’t taken shingles vaccine, at times shingles symptoms may look quite similar to other common infections but there are also some very peculiar features of this infection like its rashes appear on only one side of your body. There are a number of symptoms that might help you identify if you or someone else is suffering from shingles such as:

Burning, pain and tingling in the parts of the body that are affected from shingles.
  • A rash that is red in color appears on the area where the pain was being felt.
  • A blister that is filled with fluid and has the tendency to burst and then again crust develops over it.
  • The suffering person starts to have high fever and lots of itching.
  • Headache as well as abdominal pain.