Shingles, also known as the Herpes zoster virus, is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus. This usually occurs during adulthood. However, unlike the rash caused by the chickenpox virus, which covers large parts of the body, shingles will usually only affect a small area of skin on one side of the body. After the chickenpox virus ends in childhood, it resides within the spinal column. The virus remains there, dormant, until at some future time, it is activated. As the shingles virus reactivates, its activity is limited to a single nerve branch. This explains why the shingles rash is generally restricted to one side of the body. Despite the sound of its medical name, the Herpes Zoster virus is not to blame.
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How do you get shingles? The answer to this question is both in the affirmative and negative. Shingles that is caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same virus that is responsible for chicken pox, cannot normally be spread from one person to another. That is because only those who have had chicken pox sometime in their lives can be affected by the herpes zoster virus. In other words, if someone has not suffered from chicken pox before, it is highly unlikely that he will get shingles – because the virus is not within his body. Actually, the same virus, having stayed dormant for years, comes back as shingles at a later stage. And since most people have suffered from chicken pox at some stage, normally shingles is not contagious. Learn more about if shingles are contagious.
But there can be exceptions to this. For example, what would happen if someone with shingles interacts with someone who hasn’t had chicken pox? In such a case, the virus can be transmitted, but then, the newly affected person will not get shingles – he will get chicken pox.
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Update: New article posted about a possible, reliable treatment for shingles outbreaks!
Are shingles contagious? There are certain times that shingles are contagious to other people, only if they have not been exposed to the virus. A person with a shingles rash can pass the virus to someone, usually a child, who has never had chickenpox, but the child will develop chickenpox, not shingles. The child must come into direct contact with the open sores of the shingles rash.
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