An Overview Of Shingles 

If you ever had chickenpox in your life, the virus that caused the disease will still be present in your body. The virus will move from your skin to your nerves when the chickenpox clears. If this virus travels back to your skin from the nerves, you will get shingles.

Seek Immediate Medical Care For Shingles 

If you have any blistering rash on your body, you need to seek immediate medical care. You can visit an affordable health clinic in your locality to get medical help. If you are suffering from shingles, starting prescription medication within 2 or 3 days of rash development can help reduce the symptoms and lessen the time duration for which you have shingles. It can also help reduce the chance of other health issues like heart problems, and postherpetic neuralgia.

If you have had the shingles rash for more than 3 days, it is still important to seek medical help. This is because shingles can lead to other health issues. For instance, if a shingles rash appears on your face, it can lead to loss of eyesight and proper treatment can help save your eyesight. Some people who get shingles develop problems like pneumonia, hearing loss, or encephalitis. To ensure proper treatment for these problems, it is important to find the signs early. When visiting a doctor to get treatment for shingles, you may hear the term herpes zoster, which is the medical name of shingles.

Herpes Zoster Is Not Same As Other Types Of Herpes 

You might be confused when you hear the term herpes. Herpes zoster or simply zoster is not a sexually transmitted disease. You might have heard of genital herpes which is a sexually transmitted infection and herpes zoster cannot cause genital herpes. In addition, herpes zoster does not result in cold sores. The herpes simplex virus engenders cold sores and genital herpes. It is different from the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox.

Doctors in low income medical clinics and other healthcare facilities in the country diagnose more than a million cases of shingles every year. Most of the people suffering from shingles will be surprised as they might not remember having chickenpox. Anyone who has suffered from chickenpox at least once in their life is at the danger of getting shingles later.

Getting vaccinated can help decrease the risk of developing shingles and other health issues that can follow. You can get this vaccination from any low income health clinic or affordable health clinic in your area.