On Corriere Salute: herpes zoster, the cause of which is the chickenpox virus which reactivates

In medical jargon it is called Herpes zoster, but in Italy most people know it as “shingles”, an infectious disease, sometimes very insidious, which targets the nerves and skin and is caused by the reactivation of the varicella virus.

How does it develop?
“After recovery from chickenpox, an infectious disease that most people overcome in childhood, the varicella-zoster virus (like all herpes viruses) is not completely eliminated, but remains confined, inactive, in the nerve ganglia of the nerves psychics », explains Professor Carlo Gelmetti, director of pediatric dermatology at the Irccs Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan. “However, it can happen that after some time, the virus awakens due to a weakening of the immune system, as it can happen with advancing age, or due to the use of some immunosuppressive drugs or, again, following an environmental stress (too hot, too cold, too much sun) or emotional. The reactivated virus multiplies and goes up along the peripheral nerve bundle until it reaches the skin innervated by this nerve, an area called in technical terms dermatome ».

How is this condition recognized?
«When the virus is reactivated, the patient feels discomfort in the site corresponding to that innervated by the affected nervous ganglion. The statistically most common form is the thoracic one, but the sensory nerves of the face or the sacral ones can also be affected. The initial discomfort, felt as itching, burning, tingling or even pain, can be more or less intense depending on the age, generally it is greater in the elderly or, on the other hand, even absent in children. Then a typical redness appears with liquid-content vesicles that break easily. In this way, crusts are formed which come off within a week or two. Usually the disturbances are localized only to one side of the body, in the area innervated by a sensory nerve ».

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