Examples of shingles in the following topics:
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- Shingles, the common name for herpes zoster, is caused by latent varicella zoster virus, the same virus which causes chickenpox in children.
- Once an episode of chickenpox has resolved, the virus is not eliminated from the body, but can go on to cause shingles—an illness with very different symptoms—often many years after the initial infection.
- It has become common practice to vaccinate children against the virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles.
- Once vaccinated, most children will not become infected with the varicella zoster virus if exposed, and subsequently will not develop shingles later in life.
- Vaccination after an individual has had chickenpox still reduces the risk of later developing shingles.
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- Viruses that remain dormant in nerve ganglia, such as the varicella zoster virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles, often cause either pain, rash, or both in a pattern defined by a dermatome.
- Shingles is one of the only diseases that causes a rash in a dermatomal pattern, and as such, this is its defining symptom.
- The rash of shingles is almost always restricted to a specific dermatome, such as on the chest, leg, or arm caused by the residual
varicella zoster virus infection of the nerve that supplies that area of skin.
- Shingles typically appears years or decades after recovery from chickenpox.
- The shingles rash appears across a dermatome.
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- This layer is composed of
scale-like cells that seem to overlap in a shingle-like manner.