You need to be more terrified of shingles

Like a lot Of the people, Ann Garner thought shingles was a “mild” illness — until 2024, when she contracted it herself. If only she had known at the time that Norwegians called shingles ShinglesIt literally means “fire of hell,” or the Arabic name for it translates to “”Belt of fire“She might have been better prepared.”

shingles (Herpes zoster) is a common viral infection that causes a painful rash and can lead to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a long-term form of nerve pain that can last for years. The English name is derived from the Latin word for “belt,” as the shingles rash most commonly occurs around the torso, although it can affect the face and eyes as well, Garner discovered.

One in three people will get shingles in their lifetime, but the risk exists It rises sharply after 50 Or for anyone with a weak immune system. The disease is caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox when it first enters the body. The virus can remain dormant in a person’s nervous system for years until it becomes reactivated — often, but not always, when immunity begins to wane due to factors such as aging, immunosuppressive medications, or Acute stress.

Garner, a 73-year-old retired pharmacy manager from Wales, UK, feels certain that stress was a factor in her shingles. She was under severe financial stress due to a large tax bill when, one afternoon in July, she felt a strange tingling sensation on one side of her hairline above her forehead.

Within hours, the feeling intensified – causing her severe pain – and began to advance down her face towards one eye. “It was like hundreds of little invisible needles pricking my scalp and face,” she recalls.

Doctors recommended that Garner take acyclovir, an antiviral medication that can help reduce symptoms if taken Within 72 hours Appearance of them, and acyclovir eye cream to protect her eye, as shingles can cause Damage to eyesight and leading to blindness If it affects the eye.

But even with treatment, Garner’s face and eyelids soon became covered in a hot, red rash with angry blisters. “I couldn’t do anything to stop this feeling of being tortured by burning needles,” she says. “It was as if my nerves were downed electrical wires and they were flashing on fire.”

Although shingles is common, it seems that public perception has only recently begun to catch up with the seriousness of the condition. Study 2025 Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK point to inadequate public health messaging and lack of communication regarding patients’ experiences with the disease. “The limited literature on the experience and understanding of shingles suggests that people tend to think of it as a minor matter until they experience it themselves,” the researchers concluded.

Many people also fail to realize that shingles can have a significant, long-term impact on their lives, says Martin Solé, a consultant plastic surgeon at Oslo University Hospital in Norway. Sully conducts research into the surgical management of chronic pain, including exploring whether fat grafting to the skin can help reduce PHN. In 2022, he led a systematic review examining how shingles affects patients’ quality of life.

His meta-analysis of five studiesThe study, which included 2,519 patients in the United States, Europe and China, found that those with a severe case of shingles had quality of life scores 15 percent below the norm for physical health and 13 percent below the norm for mental health. “We were quite surprised that it affected quality of life so dramatically,” he says. “We know that if you have chronic pain, your quality of life suffers, but it is very uncommon for a temporary — rather than fatal — illness to have such an impact.”