Johannesburg - It was the worst pain I have ever experienced. I have never taken time off work before, even when I felt unwell, but this time I could not go to work.”
So said Leanne*, a recent sufferer of shingles, a virus caused by the chickenpox virus, varicella zoster.
According to Dr Allison Glass, a specialist virologist at Lancet laboratories, approximately 90 percent of adults are at risk of developing shingles.
“Anyone who has had chickenpox is at risk of getting shingles. However, because in children exposure to the chickenpox virus can have very mild symptoms, you might not even remember having had chickenpox,” Glass said.
She said the immune system was able to suppress and keep the virus under control for many years.
“But, with time and as one gets older, there is a decline in natural immunity and the virus can flair up again, presenting as shingles,” Glass said. Consequently, the risk of shingles increases as one gets older and the likelihood of persistent pain increases dramatically after the age of 50.
Shingles typically starts with abnormal localised skin sensations, ranging from tingling and numbness, to itching, burning and severe pain.
“Patients describe the pain of shingles in different ways, often as severe and excruciating. Typically it is described as a burning sensation,” said Dr Jody Pearl, a neurologist in private practice in Joburg.
Once the pain starts, the impact on your life can be devastating. Within days, a chickenpox-like rash develops on either the left or right side of the body, forming a cluster of blisters which begin to dry and scab three to five days after they first appear. But contracting shingles can lead to a complication known as post-herpetic neuralgia (PNH).
“About one in three people who develop shingles may continue to suffer from chronic pain six months after the initial illness. We call this prolonged pain, known as PHN. This chronic pain is debilitating and can lead to other consequences like sleeping problems, depression and social withdrawal,” Pearl said.
Following her bout of shingles, Leanne developed PNH, she said.
“It was so painful to touch that I couldn't even put my clothes on. I even tried to put my back into the freezer to see if it would help. But it didn't... nothing helped. It was like a deep-seated torture,” Leanne said.
But shingles can be prevented by a vaccine that was recently developed.
“This is a major breakthrough,” says Dr Milton Raff, the director of the Christian Barnard Memorial Hospital Pain Clinic in Cape Town specialised in treating chronic pain.
“The problem with shingles-related pain is that it's so difficult to treat because it's pain resulting from affected nerves that function abnormally, regular pain medications are not effective,” he said.
Medications to treat shingles and the chronic pain caused by PNH could cost R800 a month but such costs can be avoided if one gets vaccinated against the virus which is now available in South Africa.
“Now that the new vaccine is available, it is just as important for adults over 50 to be vaccinated against shingles”, says Raff. “I would recommend that everyone over the age of 50 should speak to their doctor about getting vaccinated,” Raff added.
Children can be vaccinated against chickenpox as part of their routine vaccination schedule.
*Not her real name.
The Star