Shingles or Herpes Zoster is a viral disease caused by the chickenpox virus, which occurs in the skin and nerve endings. In some cases it can lead to quite mild symptoms characterized above all by burning, hypersensitivity and small paresthesias. But in others, especially in elderly subjects, it can lead to many complications. However, few know that the problem can be avoided with a simple vaccine. Post-herpetic neuralgia caused by the Shingles
What is most frightening is post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), which, according to what emerges from a DoxaPharma survey carried out for MSD Italy, is one of the most common complications of shingles. It affects a fairly high slice of the population: 20% of the subjects who have contracted this form of Herpes, which is equivalent to as many as 30 thousand people. This complication is characterized by a very high pain that can last up to six months or even years. The pain that is felt is neuropathic, and is caused by a physiological response to the damage of the peripheral nerves caused by the virus that lodge in the locations of the nerve endings. Too many people are unfamiliar with the shingles vaccine
If patients with very painful post-herpetic neuralgia knew that they could avoid so much pain with a vaccine, they probably would. Also because, according to a recent survey involving 200 people in old age, it highlighted how the consequences of the Shingles have seriously compromised professional life or, worse, it was even impossible to proceed with normal daily activities. «This pain has the particularity of being very resistant to common analgesic therapies for this reason and the role of prevention is decisive. But on this pathology there is a communication gap: the perception of the risk of getting sick with Zoster is high only in people who have known the disease. Those who do not have this perception, in general, do not even know that there is a vaccine “,
Shingles: there is a free vaccine Vaccine against
shingles What many do not know is that there is a completely free vaccine for people over 65. “Vaccinate the entire population, with particular attention to more fragile bands, and the only way to prevent the consequences associated with shingles is that we have the possibility of doing it with a vaccine in a single dose, which has shown efficacy and tolerability “, explains Nicoletta Luppi, President and CEO of MSD Italy. Because the Fire of St. Anthony occurs at an advanced age
As we have said, Herpes Zoster is caused by the same virus as chickenpox (ZVZ) therefore, after contracting the disease in childhood, it is able to remain latent in the nerve ganglia located in the spinal cord. Generally the immune system is able to avoid reactivation. However, after the age of 50 there is a slight immunosuppression which could lead to the reactivation of the virus. Who is at risk Shingles
Virtually all adults are at risk because it is estimated that 95% of people have chickenpox. Each year, 1.7 million new cases occur in Europe alone. So potentially, all individuals with immunodeficiency or over the age of fifty can get Herpes Zoster.
Herpes, natural remedies
