General Condition Help
What You Need to Know About Shingles
If you had chicken pox when you were a child, there is about a 10 to 20 percent chance that you will develop shingles and that chance increases with age. The medical term for shingles is herpes zoster, and it is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. The first time you get infected with the virus, it causes chicken pox, but the virus can then enter the root of one of your nerves and wait there to be reactivated. When the herpes zoster virus "wakes up" after many years, the result is shingles.