LogFAQs > #939938598

ChimeraBlue posted...

Ugh, that sucks.

I had always heard that having chicken pox as a child can increase your chances of getting Shingles later in life.

Shingles is chicken pox. The virus never really goes away, it can remain inactive in your nerve cells. Shingles occurs when the virus reactivates. Risk factors are old age, poor immune function, and contracting chicken pox before 18 months of age.

Good news is that there are vaccines that are about 50 to 90% effective, depending on the specific vaccine (and reduces the severity even if shingles does occur), and there are antiviral medicines that can treat the disease as well. The best way to prevent shingles is to never get chicken pox, and there is a vaccine for that which is 95% effective.

Fun fact: Exposure to the blisters that occur in shingles can cause chicken pox in people who have never had it and never had the varicella vaccine.

---

Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.