One in 5 people will get shingles, and the chance increases with age, particularly after age 50. With odds like that, knowing the symptoms of shingles is useful information to have. Shingles represents a reactivation of a virus called varicella-zoster, the same virus that causes chickenpox.

Physicians diagnose about 500,000 new cases of shingles in the United States each year. There is no treatment for shingles, which is a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox; however, antiviral medications can reduce the length and severity of symptoms.

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, results when the virus that causes chicken pox reawakens within the roots of sensory or cranial nerves. The primary symptoms of shingles, according to the 2008 edition of “Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology in General Medicine," are pain and a unique, one-sided, blistering rash.

One of the most commonly used ways to diagnose shingles is by looking for its fairly unique symptoms. Shingles usually starts by causing a very severe burning or tingling pain that is limited to one side of the body or face. After the pain begins, a rash develops on the affected parts of the body.

Shingles is a painful condition that usually causes blisters and a rash to form on the skin. However, sometimes shingles can invade the nerves inside the body and cause other symptoms.

According to Richard J. Whitely, M.D., professor at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, writing in the 2008 edition of “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine,” shingles strikes 1.2 million Americans each year.

Shingles are most commonly diagnosed in people over age 50, according to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center College of Medicine. This painful virus can cause chills, headache, fatigue and tingling sensations on the skin.

Shingles is a viral illness that affects a variety of locations throughout the body. It most often causes a painful skin rash on the trunk, abdomen or torso. Less commonly, the rash can be found on the arms or legs. Shingles may also affect the head, face, eyes, mouth or ear.

Shingles strikes one million Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although shingles is best known for its characteristic one-sided, blistering skin rash, occasionally it produces no skin manifestations at all, a condition doctors call “zoster sine herpete.

Shingles, a common name for herpes zoster, results from reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox within sensory nerve roots of the back and spine.

Shingles is a reactivation of the herpes zoster virus—chicken pox—and typically occurs among the elderly. Its side effects can be agonizing.

Almost 1 out of every 3 people will develop shingles in their lifetime according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Physical symptoms from shingles are inconvenient at best and persistently painful at worst.