Causes of Shingles
Cause of Shingles: Reinfection with the varicella (chicken pox) virus, usually from many years or decades earlier.
Cause details for Shingles: Chickenpox is another example of a latent infection. Before the chickenpox vaccine became available in the 1990s, most children in the United States got chickenpox. After the first acute episode, usually when children are very young, the Varicella zoster virus goes into hiding in the body. In many people, it emerges many years later when they are older adults and causes a painful disease of the nerves called herpes zoster, or shingles.1
Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After an attack of chickenpox, the virus lies silent in the nerve tissue. Years later, the virus can reappear in the form of shingles.2
Shingles as a complication: Other conditions that might have Shingles as a complication might be potential underlying causes of Shingles. The list of conditions listing Shingles as a complication in our database includes:
Shingles as a symptom: Conditions listing Shingles as a symptom may also be potential underlying causes of Shingles. The list of conditions listing Shingles as a symptom in our database includes:
Causes of Shingles: medical news summaries: The following medical news items are relevant to causes of Shingles:
Related information for causes of Shingles:
Further relevant information on causes of Shingles may be found
in the risk factors for Shingles
and underlying causes of Shingles.
Footnotes:
1. excerpt from Microbes in Sickness and in Health - Publications, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: NIAID
2. excerpt from Skin Care and Aging - Age Page - Health Information: NIA
Last revision:
June 16, 2003
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