Shingles

Shingles is a painful skin rash, caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you recover from chickenpox the virus stays in your body. It moves to the roots of your nerve cells (near the spinal cord) and becomes inactive (dormant). Later, if the virus becomes active again, shingles is the name given to the symptoms it causes.

You can only get shingles if you’ve had chickenpox in the past (usually as a child). You can’t catch shingles directly from someone else; however, if you’ve never had chickenpox or received the chickenpox vaccine, you can catch chickenpox from close contact with someone who has shingles, because the shingles blisters contain the chickenpox virus.

As the virus is spread through direct contact with fluid from the rash blisters, a person with shingles is infectious when the rash is in the blister phase. Once the rash has developed crusts, the person is no longer infectious.

Shingles is less contagious than chickenpox and the risk of a person with shingles spreading the virus is low if the rash is covered. If you have shingles, you should:

• cover the rash
• avoid touching or scratching the rash
• wash your hands regularly to prevent the spread of varicella zoster virus
• avoid contact with the following high risk groups until the rash has developed crusts:
  • pregnant women who have not had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine
  • premature or low birth weight infants; and
  • people with weakened immune systems, such as people receiving immunosuppressive medications or undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients and people with HIV infection.

If you suspect somebody in your family may have chickenpox or shingles call your local GP or Healthline on 0800 611 116 for free advice from a registered nurse.

Up-to-date information on shingles is also available on the Ministry of Health website.