Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning for Medical Matters.
Shingles is a serious disease that can cause a lot of pain and it results from chicken pox.
Sommer said, “It is not fun to have shingles at all. It’s a present you get when you’re 50 or above. You increase the risk of shingles. So most of us got it (chicken pox) as kids. It starts with fever, fatigue and the red, itchy spots that turn into fluid filled blisters before crusting over. The good news is, once you’ve had it, you usually don’t get it again. However, the Varicella Zoster virus is what it’s called, it never leaves your body. It hides quietly in your nerve cells for years, and then later in life, it can reactivate as shingles, which is also also known as herpes zoster. So shingles can rear its ugly head. It kind of never leaves. It plays hide and seek for many years and then surprise. I’ve talked to people who said they have never had chicken pox and have had shingles. It could have been a mild case, or a big case. We’re from the generation where if your friend had it, you had a chicken pox party. The parents, everybody just wanted to get it over with. I’m not saying to do that. I’m saying that’s what went on when I was a kid.”
Chicken pox usually shows up 10 to 21 days after exposure. It’s a rash that can be on the chest, back, or face. A person is contagious one to two days before the rash appears.
Sommer said, “That’s what makes it so complicated, because there’s such a long incubation period after you’re exposed, and then before the rest starts, you’re contagious, so you might feel a little feverish, kind of like flu-ish, not think anything of it, but you’re not going to not do what you need to do. When you were a kid, you didn’t always tell your mother, you didn’t stay home from school unless there was something visible to stay home from school for. So that’s why it’s so contagious, and it’s spread, and it’s kind of starts off as a silent spread before the rash appears.”
Shingles usually affects one side of the body with tingling and burning.
Sommer said, “The people who are most vulnerable to these viruses are the very young and the very old and the immunocompromised. So even children, newborns are at risk for more complications with chicken pox, because the rash spreads and the fever can be high and little children dehydrate very quickly with fever, and especially if they don’t want to eat because they’re so uncomfortable. Sometimes children can end up in the hospital. So I just want to mention that.”
What is the treatment for chicken pox?
Sommer said, “They recommend keeping their nails short, using cool baths with calamine lotion. Oatmeal baths were very popular when I was a kid to help with itching, make sure you avoid aspirin, that’s baby aspirin. It can lead to a dangerous reaction called Reye syndrome. Most people don’t give their children aspirin anymore. It’s Motrin and Tylenol. I don’t even know if baby aspirin is still on the shelf in the child section. I know it’s available in the adult because an aspirin a day keeps the doctor away as an adult. Adults, or anyone at a higher risk may need antiviral medication. Now, this was something I learned. I didn’t know they did this for adults. I thought this was only for shingles, but I guess adults, if they get chicken pox, they can start an antiviral within the first couple of days. So that’s really interesting. That was something new I learned. For shingles, antivirus medications also work if they’re started early, within 72 hours of the rash. We will get more in detail about shingles, because it is painful, so it’s something you’ve got to worry about, depending on where it turns up on the body. One good thing that there’s a positive upswing to this, now they have vaccines for both. So in children, it’s usually two doses of the vaccine for children, and shingles, it’s shingrix for adults, 50 and older. You can even get it if you had shingles. And actually, they recommend it. I’ve seen multiple cases of shingles over the last 20 plus years that I’ve lived down here and have done primary care, and worked at urgent care and all over. Somebody’s always coming in with shingles, and I always tell them, you might want to consider, once this is all resolved, get the vaccine, because it’s very uncomfortable. It comes back and it can be exacerbated by stress.”
The virus is airborne.
Sommer said, “From coughing, sneezing. I mean, yes, the blisters, if you have the blisters, until they crust over, they’re considered contagious. Chicken pox starts with the blisters, and then a few days later they have a crusting, or however long it takes for them to have a crusting, once they’re crusted, you’re really not considered contagious. But while they’re active blisters, if you touch them. So if you are an older adult and say you’re a grandpa or grandma and you’ve got shingles and you have a newborn, you need to not touch the baby. You need to get nowhere near the baby, because the baby is not protected against chicken pox, and that happens occasionally. I’ve seen it happen where a two week old or a four week old ends up with chicken pox because one of the grandparents had shingles and didn’t know.”
If you’re unsure whether you’ve ever had chickenpox or the vaccine, you can get a blood test to find that out.
Sommer said, “You can ask your doctor for a blood test just to check. I mean, I’m trying to think of when the chicken pox vaccine came out. I think it was sometime in the 90s. So anytime before then, if you’re little, a lot of times you don’t remember what you had, and if you had a very mild case, you might not even know you had it. So you can ask your provider for a titer to see if you’ve had chicken pox or the vaccine.”
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