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Shingles Contagious
In the early 1900s a German scientist conducted studies to prove that the shingles virus and the chickenpox virus were one in the same. However it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that a conclusive experiment was conducted. Children were injected with fluid from shingles blisters and within two weeks one half of these children had shown symptoms of chickenpox. This showed that it was very likely that the shingles virus and the chickenpox virus were the same.
Detailed analysis in the late 1950s confirmed this fact. These studies also proved that the shingles virus is contagious and that an individual with shingles can transmit the virus to people who have never had chickenpox. The individuals who have never had chickenpox will develop chickenpox not shingles. Shingles can not be transmitted from one person to another.
Shingles is contagious via contact with the open blisters of a rash. Shingles is not a sexually transmitted disease. Individuals with shingles transmit chickenpox, but do not transmit shingles. Contagiousness of shingles refers to how easily shingles is spread from Individual to individual. Contagious viruses are not genetic or inherited.
Shingles is not contagious; it is not something an individual becomes infected with, but rather a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, varicella herpes zoster. Shingle is the adult version of chickenpox. Most cases of shingles occur in individuals over the age of fifty. One in five people over the age of sixty-five will develop shingles.
To develop shingles an individual must have been infected with chickenpox and carry the virus in their central nervous system. A person with chickenpox can not transmit shingles to another individual. Shingles cannot be communicated from individual to individual. Therefore if an individual infected with shingles come into direct contact with someone who has never had chickenpox, it is possible for that individual to develop chickenpox.
The primary risk in transmission is through direct contact with an open and draining shingles blister. The fluid that is draining from the blisters contains the varicella herpes zoster virus that makes shingles contagious. Bandages or wound dressings can have the shingles virus on them and should be handled with caution, as not to transmit the shingles virus. Shingles virus is only contagious through direct contact and therefore it is unnecessary to quarantine the infected individual.
People with shingles are only contagious to those who have never been infected with chickenpox; otherwise individuals with shingles are not contagious. When an individual develops shingles they have contracted it from their own chickenpox virus that has been dormant in the body.
Individuals who have been given the vaccine for varicella zoster cannot contract chickenpox from a person who has shingles. The shingles virus, herpes zoster is part of the herpes family. Shingles is cause by a specific herpes virus known as varicella zoster and cannot communicate any other herpes virus. The varicella zoster virus does not cause herpes simplex I ( cold sores or fever blisters) or herpes simplex II ( genital herpes ). The varicella zoster only causes shingles and herpes.
After an individual is infected with chickenpox the virus runs its course and then settles and lies dormant in the nerve ganglia. The shingles virus appears when the chickenpox virus herpes zoster) reactivates. The virus reactivates most often in individuals who have immune deficiencies and also can be caused by stress. An outbreak of shingles can occur anytime the immune system is compromised or an individual is run down or under tremendous stress. Why the shingles virus reactivates is being actively researched in the hope that painful shingles outbreaks can be prevented.
Shingles can also be transmitted in other ways. If a woman has shingles during her pregnancy she can communicate the shingles virus via her bloodstream or it can be communicated during the birthing process. The shingles virus if transmitted to an infant or fetus can be fatal or cause congenital malformations also known as birth defects.
To reduce the risk or transmitting the varicella herpes zoster virus, individuals with shingles should keep open blisters clean and covered. In the beginning stages of shingles there is no rash and just pain. Several days after the initial pain the rash forms. In some rare cases of shingles no rash develops. If no rash develops the individual cannot share the shingles virus with an individual who has never been infected with chickenpox. Once the blisters cry up and fall of the virus is no longer contagious. The shingles rash lasts about one to three weeks and the pain associated with shingles in most cases subsides within one month.
www.aftershingles.org
www.babybag.com/articles/cdc_shng.htm
www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/shingles/detail_shingles.htm
www.my.webmd.com/content/article/78/95860.htm
www.megaone.com/bombshell/shingles.html
