Ο shingles is a viral skin rash, relatively limited in extent, usually painful, affecting mainly the elderly and people with compromised immunity (immunosuppressed). It is due to the resurgence of the virus chickenpox-herpes zoster, which after causing chickenpox at a young age, is permanently established in our body and remains dormant in the sensory nerve endings of the skin.
HOW OFTEN DOES IT OCCUR?
Usually 30% of people will develop the disease at some point in their lives. All ages are affected but the incidence of the disease increases with age (50% of people over 85 years of age are almost certain to get the disease).
WHO IS/ARE MOST AT RISK?
The factors currently thought to be involved in the reactivation of the virus are: old age (usually people older than 50 years), patients with autoimmune diseases, with chronic lung or kidney disease, sufferers from malignancies (usually hematological, Hodgkin's disease), sufferers of diabetes mellitus or HIV infection and of course the chronic fatigue and mental stress can also mobilize the disease. Chemotherapy, immunosuppressive drugs, corticosteroids, radiotherapy and statins (anti-cholesterol drugs) are also considered factors that could cause the disease.
HOW SERIOUS IS THE DISEASE?
Ο shingles can cause damage from all systems of the body. Ocular involvement and the development of metherpetic neuralgia are not uncommon and are the most serious complications. Metherpetic neuralgia is defined as intolerable pain following the rash. It lasts for months or years and debilitates the sufferer mentally and physically. More rarely the disease may, depending on its location, cause peripheral nerve paralysis, encephalitis, myelitis, facial paralysis and rarely, in severely immunocompromised patients, even death.
IS THERE A CURE?
The aim of the treatment is threefold. We aim to suppression of inflammation, on pain control and in the containment of the infection caused by the virus. Early diagnosis of the disease and the administration of specific antiviral drugs help to reduce the symptoms of the disease and speed up recovery. In some cases, the administration of corticosteroids is also necessary. Proper topical treatment also helps the healing of skin lesions. Unfortunately we can hardly achieve the final eradication of the virus. For the treatment of pain, different classes of analgesics are used. In recent years a vaccine against shingles has been standardised, which mainly concerns people aged over 60.
You must never forget that you must trust your skin to your dermatologists, who are the only doctors who have the ultimate say in the pathological and aesthetic problems of your skin.
Source : https://www.edae.gr/dermalogos/
