Patient/caregiver was educated on risk factors for shingles activation as follows:
- In individuals with history of chickenpox infection, the virus causing chickenpox can live latent and inactive in various nerves of the body for years.
- Strong and intact immune system can help keeping the virus latent, thus preventing it’s reactivation.
- The latent virus has the potential to get reactivated anytime in future, especially under conditions of compromised immune system, resulting in the painful skin rash of shingles.
- Risk factors for shingles activation include:
- Senility – Individual immunity progressively decreases in seniors and thus, advanced age can be a serious risk factor.
- Chronic stress – Individuals with history of chronic unrelieved stress can have excessive steroid hormone production in their body to help stress management. Steroids have the potential to reduce antibody production and compromise immunity. Compromised immune status in such individuals can lead to latent virus activation, resulting in shingles.
- Prolonged steroid intake – Individuals with history of organ transplantation can be placed on long-term steroid administration, as steroids help prevent development of autoantibodies and thus, prevent transplant rejection. In this process, steroids reduce the overall production of antibodies and so, reduce immunity. Reduced immune status can lead to activation of inactive virus in the nervous tissues and cause shingles.
- HIV infection – Individuals with HIV infection and AIDS can present with immunodeficiency. Compromised immune status in individuals can be a risk factor for latent virus activation, resulting in shingles.
- Cancers – Individuals with history of cancers and undergoing radiation therapy & chemo can have lowered resistance to diseases and present with immune deficient state. Compromised immune status in such individuals can lead to latent virus activation, resulting in shingles.
