Question

Discuss how chicken pox or chicken pox vaccine predisposes an individual to developing herpes zoster.

Answer 1

Chicken pox is a a highly contagious viral infection which cause an itchy ,blister like rash on the skin.

Chicken pox is highly contagious to those who haven't had the disease or been vaccinated against it.

Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is caused by the reactivation of the varicella - zoster virus, the same virus that causes varicella ( chicken pox)

Primary infection with VZV causes varicella.once the illness resolves the virus remains latent in the dorsal root gangila.VZV can reactive later in a person's life and cause a painful, maculopapular rash called herpes zoster.

Clinical features :

People with herpes zoster most commonly have a rash in one or two adjacent dermatomes (localized poster) the rash most commonly appears on the trunk along a thoracic dermatome.the rash does not usually cross the body's midline.less commonly the rash can be more widespread and affect three or more dermatomes.this condition is Called disseminated zoster. This generally occurs onl people with compromised or suppressed immune systems.disseminated zoster can be difficult to distinguish from varicella.

This rash is usually painful,itchy, or tingly.these symptoms may presed rash onset by several days. Some people may also have headache,photophobia , and malaise in the prodromal phase.

This rash develops into cluster of vesicles.new vesicles continue to from over three to five days and progressively dry and crust over.they usually heal in two to flour weeks.there may be permanent pigmentation changes and scarring on the skin.

Risk factors :- being older than 50. Shingles is most common in people older than 50.

Having certain diseases.disease that weaken your immune system such as HIV/ AIDS and cancer can increase your risk of shingles.undergoing cancer treatments.taking certain medicine.

Transmission ;

VZV spread through direct contact with fluid from the rash blisters.most people who develop shingles have only one episode during their life time.however you can get the disease more than once. A person with active shingle can spread the virus when the rash is in the blister phase.

Complications;

Herpes zoster infection include acute pain posetherpetic, neuralgia,persistent neuropathy , hemorrhage, ulceration,necrosis mayonecrosis necrosis of bone and uncommonly secundary bacterial infection.

Zoster vaccine are two vaccine that can be shown to reduce the rate of herpes zoster .one type, zostavax is essentially vs larger than normal dose of the chicken pox vaccine as both shingles and chicken pox are caused by the same virus the varicellazoster virus.

Children has been decline since the routine varicella vaccination program started. Varicrlla vaccine causes latent infection.

Children healthy and immunocompromised who have been vaccinated against varicella have lower rate of herpes zoster compared to children who had natural infection with varicella.the reason for this is that vaccinated children are less likely to be come infected with wild type VZV and the risk of reactivation of vaccine strain VZV appears lower compared with reactivation of wild type VZY . the number of older adults who have received varicella vaccine since it was licenced in 1995: is quite small.these varsity little information on the risk of herpes zokzter in people who got varicrll a vaccine as adultes.

CDC continues study the epidimology of herpes zoster among adults and children and to monitor the effects of the US varicella and herpes zoster vaccination programs.