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Ask the Experts about Opportunistic Infections

 

shingles?
Sep 15, 2001

what causes shingles

Response from Dr. Feinberg

Shingles is caused by reactivation of a prior infection with the virus that causes chicken pox, Varicella zoster virus. Once you are infected with Varicella, it remains dormant ('asleep')in your body; even though the chicken pox symptoms resolve, the virus does not go away. Later on, the virus can be reactivated and travels down one or more nerves from your spinal cord to cause the characteristic eruption in an area on one side of the body.



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