Usually it is not difficult to diagnose shingles. The fact that everything starts with weakness, high temperature and local pains followed by definitive herpetic eruption (redness, swelling, grouped vesicles) is enough. Treatment of this disease should be directed on the deletion of Herpes Zoster (the virus itself) and pain abolition. In difficult cases the patients are to be hospitalized.
The earliest treatment - the best
If the shingles is not taken care of on the very first stages, the infection can develop and suppuration starts. In more serious cases the pathological process spreads on the other parts of nervous system. Herpetic infection with fever appears, at the same time the general condition of the patients is getting worse and worse. Patients should know that using medicine as treatments (creams and ointments) against the rash will not be enough, as they are not able to cope with the symptoms of the disease and will not prevent the complications.
Doctors consider that eruptions themselves do not comprise a big problem; more difficult and dangerous is pain syndrome. If after the first 5 - 7 seven days from the rash appearance special herpes treatment medicine is not prescribed, in most cases pain syndrome is extremely difficult to cope with after the main cure course is finished. The virus causes disruption in the very structure of the nerves, and this tissue is considered the most slowly and problematically restorable tissue of the body - nerve endings can be restored for months. Thus, we get the situation when there is no active shingles virus anymore (it was destroyed by the antiviral medications), however the pain remains, and people are forced to take super potent anesthetics. Sometimes it can be even drugs.
Generally shingles and chicken-pox are alike. During the ambulant treatment apart from pain killers, antiviral medicine is prescribed (both pills and ointments are to be locally applied 4 - 5 times a day). Patients are not allowed to wash the skin, and the areas around the eruptions are to be wiped with 2% salicylic alcohol.
Nowadays there are a lot of different antiviral kinds of medicine, which can be taken against shingles. They are the most effective, if they are taken in the very beginning of the illness, the sooner you start - the better. The main function of this treatment - is to suppress virus replication. Additional to the main medicine course anti-inflammatory medicine is prescribed, analgesics, group B vitamins, ascorbic acid - to boost up the body resistance to the herpetic infection.
The appeared vesicles when shingles is diagnosed are better not to open. If the rash is strong you can cover it with the wet towel, amylum soaking therapy is also very helpful. If the blisters disappeared, but the pain is strong enough, ice can be put on the painful areas.
Shingles can hurt any part of the nervous system. Most often these are cerebrospinal nerves (more than 90%) and most likely the virus will occupy chest and bottom parts of the body (65 - 70% cases). Usually the disease will not leave any marks after the healing, if everything was done correct.
The most difficult complications occur, when the shingles spreads on the other parts of the nervous system. First of all this is peripheral paralysis, when the responses become limited or fully absent. As a rule, these symptoms disappear in several weeks, but cases are known, when they remain constant and lead to the muscle loss. If the given prescriptions were not carefully followed or self-treatment was used by elderly people, they can get complications in the form of temporary limp numbness, skin necrosis or cerebral tissues inflammation.