Every year, around 300,000 Germans contract shingles. However, an analysis also shows that the number of vaccinations against the virus is increasing. How the disease manifests itself – and for whom the vaccine is useful.
More and more people are getting vaccinated against shingles. According to a recent analysis by the German Drug Testing Institute (DAPI) on behalf of the German Pharmacists Association (DAV), the number of vaccine doses delivered by pharmacies to doctor’s offices in the first half of 2022 more than tripled compared to the same period last year – from 662,000 to 2.0 million.
Anyone who has had chickenpox can later develop shingles, or herpes zoster. Shingles is a reactivation of chickenpox pathogens, the varicella zoster viruses. After the chickenpox infection, they have retreated into nerve nodes (ganglia) of the spinal nerves and cranial nerves, and thus remain latent in the spinal cord. The bad news is that around one in three people gets herpes zoster, and the risk increases with age.
1. Almost all of those over 50 years of age today had chickenpox in their childhood, meaning they have been carrying inactive varicella in ganglia on the spine for decades.
2. The older you get, the weaker your immune system becomes. Under certain circumstances, it can no longer keep the viruses under control. The pathogens become active and migrate from the nerve node along the nerve fibers back to the surface of the skin. Although the viruses lie dormant in many nerve nodes, reactivation usually only occurs in one or a few neighboring ones. Accordingly, one or several nerve fibers are affected by the renewed infection.
Herpes zoster has two stages of the disease, an acute stage and a prodromal stage, i.e. an early stage: In the acute stage, the rash typical of herpes zoster appears. The reactivated viruses reach the surface of the skin along the nerve fibers, forming red blisters that itch and burn, fill with fluid, mature, then burst, crust over and then heal.
The rash is usually limited to a specific region – unlike with large-scale chickenpox, which spreads over the entire body. This is the area of ??skin (dermatome) that is supplied by the affected nerve fibers. Depending on where the rash appears, the dermatome can be used to determine which nerve and nerve node is involved.
If the rash appears, it is high time for treatment. The special antiviral medication must be taken within the first 72 hours, otherwise it will no longer work optimally. Otherwise, complications and secondary illnesses, especially post-herpetic neuralgia, are a risk. This can be severe pain that can torment the affected skin region and nerve fibers for months or even years.
Therefore, pay attention to symptoms that appear in the early stages, i.e. before the rash, and if in doubt, talk to your doctor about it.
Up to about a week before the blisters appear, the following are possible:
Two to three days before the blisters form:
The signs, from sensitivity to touch to rash, always appear on one side. It is typical for shingles that nerves are only affected on one side of the body. The pain and rash therefore extend from the side of the back to the front of the stomach, like a belt, hence the name shingles. The nerve fibers always run from the back in one side of the body and, to put it simply, do not grow all the way around. The symptoms therefore never extend beyond the central axis of the body. This is the breastbone at the front and the spine at the back.
Usually, one side of the chest or upper abdomen is affected, sometimes also the back. However, the striped rash can also form on an arm or leg, or even on one side of the head.
It can take up to four weeks from the early symptoms to the blisters healing. However, many people are unaware of the first signs of this reinfection. However, the unexplained pain and the unpleasant sensitivity disturbances in a limited area of ??the body on one side should be a warning sign. This is especially true for people over 50 who have had chickenpox before and have not been vaccinated against herpes zoster.
The Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) recommends vaccination
There are different medications for shingles. How well they work depends largely on when they are taken. FOCUS Online explains which shingles symptoms you should be aware of and why rapid treatment is so important.
Only a few people know about the disease shingles, and yet millions of people are at risk for the viral infection, which can cause severe, chronic nerve pain. Protection is provided by vaccination – for whom and when is it recommended by the Stiko?
