Shingles vaccine question?

Question:

As I've already posted, I have had shingles for 14 days now, on my face. It's better, but my eye has been affected and has 2 lesions inside the eye. I'm on Econopred 4 x's a day and my eye lid is burning at times and itching, and I awakened at 2:00 a.m. with terrible eyebrow itching--this was the first place the shingles began. I have a call in to my eye doctor to see if I need to be seen. My eye has ached and around the outside, it has hurt alot at times. ONly icebags help then. Can I still get the Shinkles vaccine when this is all over, so I don't get this again. I understand it's available now for folks over 60. thanks. yanksgirl

Answers:
Shingles is caused by varicella zoster virus, like chicken pox however -- it occurs as a REACTIVATION of the virus, usuallly many years after the chicken pox attack. The good thing is it is milder than chicken pox, tho can be very painful in some cases - especially around the eyes, and it si more localized while chicken pox is very generalized. While there is a chicken pox vaccine to prevent getting chicken pox, or to get at most only a very mild form of the disease, the vaccine will not prevent you from getting shingles. The varicella zoster virus sits in the nerves and can get reactivated at any time -especially if you are immunocompromised ie your immunity levels go down. The virus itself is a 'live vaccine' which means it injects a latent form of the virus into you so your body produces an immune response and the next time you are infected by the virus you wont manifest the disease as your body will come out with a strong immune response and protect you. But the vaccine will not protect you from the virus getting reactivated -in fact, even if you have already had the vaccnine, you can still get just shingles even if you are protected from chicken pox.
There is no definite cure for shinglesm, but you can use antivirals like acyclovir to reduce the severity of shingles attacks and symptomatic treatment including painkillers.,

Other Answers:
The medical community is always looking for better ways to help people with shingles...the med can be given and the hopes are that the shingles wont come back as bad..but the vaccine may only postpone the illness from coming back with more Severe shingles...some meds have only been tested as a preventative therapy..and is not intended for treatment for those that already have shingles. Shingles is also known as Herpes Zoster..

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Shingles vaccine question?

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