The shingles virus is noted for the intense pain accompanying the shingles rash. Although most people suffer only one attack, repeated bouts of the rash can occur–usually located at the same place as the first rash. Even after the shingles rash disappears, some patients continue to have pain at the site of the rash. This pain is called postherpetic neuralgia. Some researchers believe shingles occur when the immune system is weakened, but there is no definitive answer. There is medication that will shorten the length of the outbreak. In order to be effective, you should be seen by a doctor within the first 72 hours the outbreak of the rash. The rash caused by shingles and the extreme pain are just a couple of symptoms, but there are more symptoms of shingles.

Shingles will do damage to your skin. Once you are over the outbreak, the skin at the site of the rash will be dry, flaky, and perhaps scarred. It will need a little extra care to get it supple again. Be sure to use a moisturizing soap and lotion until it’s back to normal.

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.

Consider another situation – someone has chicken pox, so can he spread the shingles disease? This issue is raised because it is the same virus that causes both these ailments. The answer to this is in the negative. This is because for the virus to become effective, it has to reside in the nervous system for a while. So if someone not having the virus comes in contact with someone with chicken pox, he cannot get shingles.

All this can become a bit confusing. So here is a list for easy understanding…

Has shingles – Meets someone who has not suffered from chicken pox before = Shingles is not contagious here.

Has shingles – Meets someone who has suffered from chicken pox before = Shingles is contagious here.

Has shingles — Meets someone who has not suffered from chicken pox before = Shingles is not contagious but the affected person can still get chicken pox.

Has chicken pox – Meets someone who does not have the virus within himself = Contagious but the person will get chicken pox and not shingles.

Has chicken pox – Meets someone who has chicken pox within himself = no one can get shingles in such a case.

So the shingles disease is not normally contagious through casual contacts, coughing, sneezing or waste materials like most other diseases are transmitted. However it is still advisable to avoid coming into contact with someone who has been affected with the shingles virus. Blame this on the rashes, particularly when the blisters are still there. However once the rashes have dried up, the risk goes down considerably. The chances of a shingles contamination are very less then. There is no reason to worry at a stage when there is just the pain and very few rashes. Shingles is not contagious at such a stage.

Medications are available to strengthen the immune system to lower the risk of a contamination from shingles.

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.

Merely being in the same room with a shingles patient will not cause the child to catch chickenpox. During a shingles infection the virus is not normally in the lungs and therefore can’t be spread through the air. With some shingles medications you can treat shingles to help get rid of the shingles outbreak.

Many people have received the shingles vaccine to help prevent future outbreaks.  Also, there are some treatments that you can use to help prevent shingles from being contagious, which will help prevent you spreading shingles to another person, at times.  Remember, you might not think you are contagious to other people, but would you want to really give someone else shingles?

People with chickenpox cannot communicate shingles to someone else although they can of course pass the chickenpox on to someone who has never had chickenpox. In cases of chickenpox, the virus can become airborne because it is found in the upper respiratory tract.

Shingles occurs when an unknown trigger causes the virus hiding inside the person’s body to become activated. Unlike chickenpox, shingles can’t be “caught” from someone else.  Shingles treatments can offer some relief from the pain associated with shingles and can help you get over the shingles outbreak faster.

As early as 1909, a German scientist suspected that the viruses causing chickenpox and shingles were one and the same. In the 1920s and 1930s, the case was strengthened. As part of an experiment, children were inoculated with fluid from the lesions of patients with shingles. Within two weeks, about half the children came down with chickenpox.

Finally, in 1958, detailed analysis of the viruses taken from patients with either chickenpox or shingles confirmed that the viruses were identical. The virus that causes shingles and chickenpox is known as the varicella-zoster virus.

Based on these studies, it was shown that a person with shingles (also known as herpes zoster) can pass the varicella-zoster virus to others, but these individuals would develop chickenpox instead of shingles. Therefore, a person with shingles cannot transmit shingles to another person. In other words, in order for a person to develop shingles, he or she must already harbor the chickenpox virus in the nervous system. When this virus becomes active again, the individual will develop shingles.

So, to sum it up, shingles are contagious to people that have not had chickenpox. They are not contagious without contact to the individual. The most at risk are children. Shingles are contagious under certain circumstances to everyone.  Shingles vaccine can help you prevent future outbreaks of the shingles disease and shingles treatments can help relieve the shingles pain.

There are many shingles treatments if you do get shingles, however if you aren’t sure if you have shingles, the best method is to stay away from other people during a potential outbreak.  Some of the treatments that you can receive are recommended by your Doctor, however you can also find topical skin creams that will help sooth the pain and itching, calming teas and other foods that can sometimes help with the pain through holistic approaches and other natural remedies that might help.  As each individual is different, so is what might possibly help you deal with an outbreak and the pain and itching that is often associated with it.