• Machinist@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      IIRC, shingles is the chicken pox virus (which is in the herpes family). Chicken pox goes dormant in the nerve cells. As people age, the immune system weakens, and the virus can come out of dormancy from the nerve cells, causing intense pain. This can occur more than once, like fever blisters or genital herpes. The associated rash is usually on the trunk or sometimes limbs. It has a branching form that follows the nerves under the skin. Rarely life threatening but super fucking painful.