Shingles may be a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles will occur anyplace on your body, it most often seems as one stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the correct facet of your torso.
Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — a similar virus that causes chickenpox.
After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles.
While it's not a dangerous condition, shingles may be very painful. Vaccines will facilitate cut back the chance of shingles, while early treatment can help shorten a shingles infection and lessen the chance of complications.