what are shingles? and are there any pictures of them that i can see?!
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shin·gles ( P ) (shngglz)
pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
An acute viral infection characterized by inflammation of the sensory ganglia of certain spinal or cranial nerves and the eruption of vesicles along the affected nerve path. It usually strikes only one side of the body and is often accompanied by severe neuralgia. Also called herpes zoster.
PICTURES: http://images.google.com/images?q=shingles&hl=en
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i thought shingles were on top of roofs
It's a recurring outbreak of blisters on the skin. It's like mouth sores. They show up for various reasons and in various frequency.
I know two people that have Shingles. On one unfortunate soul, the blisters are almost always in the same region of their body, near the small of the back. On the other person, they have migrated a bit and the last outbreak was on this person's scalp and face. In that case it is very serious, because one can lose their eyesight over it and there is no stopping it except for extremely expensive and aggressive drugs. I believe the drugs reduce one's immune system tho.
Our wonderful pharmaceutical capabilities in the country right?
There is no cure, but there are expensive (imagine that) drugs than help, but there is no cure (according to the pharmacy companies at least).
The virus is caused by Chicken Pox, and the zoster virus resides in the body. It's dormant until something sets it off.
The onset of it feels like the flu, and the blisters are a burning painful experience. I'm lucky I don't have them.
I included a website in case you want to read a little more about it.
Source(s):
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/shinglesFS.htm
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