Brian Mora
Brian Mora
Yes, chickenpox and shingles are indeed caused by the same virus, which is called the "Varicella-zoster virus."
You can imagine this process as a story:
First Infection: Causing "Chickenpox"
- Protagonist: Varicella-zoster virus
- Plot: When you (or anyone) first get infected with this virus, it causes a reaction throughout your body, manifesting as fever and itchy red blisters all over. This is what we commonly know as "chickenpox."
- Outcome: After about one or two weeks, the chickenpox heals, and the scabs fall off. But the story doesn't truly end there; this virus is very cunning and isn't completely eliminated by your immune system.
The Virus's Latency
- Plot: The defeated virus quietly "retreats," traveling along the nerves to your nerve ganglia (which can be understood as the "headquarters" of the nerves) to "lie dormant." They can stay there quietly for decades, doing nothing, making you think they've disappeared.
Years Later, a Comeback: Causing "Shingles"
- Trigger: Many years later, when your immunity declines due to factors like aging, excessive stress, illness, or fatigue, your immune system's vigilance over these dormant viruses loosens.
- Plot: These long-dormant viruses seize the opportunity to "awaken" and become active again along a specific nerve pathway, traveling to the skin area supplied by that nerve.
- Outcome: This time, it won't appear all over the body. Instead, it will emerge on one side of the body, along the path of the nerve, as a cluster of intensely painful blisters. Because it often appears in a band-like distribution, it's called "shingles." Many describe the pain as a "burning" or "stabbing" sensation.
To summarize simply:
- Chickenpox = The virus's initial appearance, usually widespread.
- Shingles = The same virus that lay dormant for years, reactivating when immunity is low, and is localized.
Therefore, only people who have had chickenpox can get shingles. If someone who has never had chickenpox comes into contact with the fluid from a shingles patient's blisters, they will not get shingles; instead, they will get chickenpox.