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February 9, 2012
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Shingles (cont.)

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Shingles Causes

Herpes zoster virus causes shingles. No one knows for sure what causes the chickenpox virus to become reactivated to cause shingles. Some investigators suggest that the following conditions may participate in virus reactivation, since they have been associated with a higher incidence of shingles. This is a list of only some of the major conditions that may trigger reactivation, but have as yet not been proven to do so:

  • stress;


  • fatigue;


  • a weakened immune system (This may be age-related, disease-related, or a drug-related decrease in ability to keep the chickenpox virus in an inactive state.);


  • cancer;


  • radiation treatments;


  • injury of the skin where the rash occurs;


  • HIV/AIDS.
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Shingles - Diagnosis

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Shingles - Symptoms and Signs

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Shingles - Effective Treatments

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Herpes Zoster »

Herpes zoster (shingles) is 1 of 2 distinctive manifestations of human infection with the varicella-zoster virus(VZV), the other being varicella (chickenpox).

Read More on Medscape Reference »

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