Shingles - What To Do When You Have Them?

After the blisters have started to dry, it is necessary to keep sanitizing them with clean tap water in order to decrease the oozing, clean away the crust, and to soothe the skin so that it heals faster. Burow?s solution can also be used for the same purpose. The use of any other fluid will simply irritate the skin and make it more itchy and painful.

Pregnant women, especially those who have never had chickenpox or taken the vaccine for chickenpox are most susceptible to the virus that causes shingles and chickenpox. They must be avoided at all costs to prevent them from catching the virus as it may cause them to experience complications in their pregnancy which could affect the health and wel-lbeing of the child that they are carrying.

The shingles virus spreads from direct contamination when the fluid inside the blisters spills onto a given surface. It is therefore not possible for the virus to spread from one person to another prior to the appearance of the blisters with the fluid inside them. Once the blisters have formed, it is important to be very careful so as to not let the fluid from contaminating surfaces from which it may spread to other persons.

Having shingles once is no guarantee of immunity from a relapse. Although it is rare and highly unlikely for a person to get shingles more than once, it is not entirely impossible either. After getting healed, the virus that caused shingles remains inside your body but is dormant and can be reactivated by a number of triggers. The most common cause of reactivation is sudden weakening of the immune system which may happen due to conditions such as lymphoma, leukaemia, HIV, etc.