User:Mvolz/Can I get shingles if I've never had chickenpox before

Can you get shingles if you've never had chickenpox before?
No.  Shingles only appears in people who have already had chickenpox. Both chickenpox and shingles are caused by the virus Varicella zoster. Chickenpox is a primary infection, meaning it is what we call the first time you are infected with Varciella zoster. Shingles is a secondary infection which means it only occurs after you've already been infected with Varicella zoster already.

Can you get shingles from the chickenpox vaccine?
Because the chicken pox is a live attenuated vaccine, there are some rare cases of shingles resulting from vaccination, rather than primary chicken pox infection. However, the risk is much lower from the vaccine than from contracting chicken pox naturally.

What if you have shingles, but don't remember having had chickenpox before, or if your parents say you never got it?
Chickenpox is a childhood illness. Before the vaccine was available, about 1/3 of people who contracted chicken pox were 4 or under, and so they were too young to remember getting chickenpox. Additionally, chickenpox is milder in younger children and babies than it is older children in adult. Whilst some babies and toddlers will have a very noticeable case of chickenpox, some children may get only 1 or 2 spots. If you or your parent don't remember you getting chickenpox, it may be that the case was too mild to identify as chicken pox, or it was so mild it wasn't a big deal to them and they don't remember.

Why do they have separate names?
Chickenpox and shingles look a little different, so for a while people didn't know they were caused by the same virus. Shingles outbreaks tend to occur on only one part of the body in a concentrated patch, whereas chickenpox typically start on the face and chest and spread to the legs and arms. They also occur at different times of life - chickenpox mostly occurs in children, whilst shingles mostly occurs in the elderly. These diseases had their own names before people knew that shingles was a secondary infection caused by having chickenpox as a child.

Why does shingles happen?
During a primary Varicella zoster infection (chickenpox) your immune system works hard to fight the virus. Unfortunately Varicella zoster has a trick up its sleeves - it can insert itself into our DNA. Our immune system is able to kill off most all of the infected cells, but the virus infects neurons in the dorsal root ganglion, which the immune system won't kill. The virus hides there for the rest of our lives. Occasionally it will reproduce itself, but as long as our immune system is strong, it kills it off pretty quickly without any noticeable effect. However, when we get older our immune system doesn't work as well, plus, our immune system can also "forget" about the virus. Sometimes a virus will start reproducing from one of these dorsal root ganglion and cause an infection; this is shingles. A shingles vaccination made of dead Varicella zoster virus particle can help "remind" our immune system about the virus and kill them off before they start an outbreak. However, this is not as effective at preventing shingles as preventing primary infection via the chickenpox vaccine, since you cannot get shingles if you've never had chickenpox. However, the chickenpox vaccine is not 100% effective, so a small percentage of people will contract chickenpox and consequently shingles, even if they've been vaccinated. Additionally, if you contracted chickenpox before you were vaccinated, the vaccine will not prevent shingles, because you had chickenpox already.