Shingles: Chickenpox packing a punch
Shingles Awareness Week 2025 is from February 24 to March 2. I was unaware that such an event existed until—you guessed it—I was diagnosed with shingles during Shingles Awareness Week! The timing is impeccable. Thanks to getting shingles, I am reviewing what I have learned about this condition (in college-level virology and during my PHM training ) in juxtaposition with my experience. What is shingles? Shingles is a disease caused by the Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV). The VZV contains double-stranded DNA, similar to its host (i.e., people). Its replication mechanism is similar to its host, allowing it to use the host's enzymes to multiply. As Dr Jill Hacker (of CDPH's Viral and Rickettsial Diseases Laboratory) said during one of her Virology lectures, VZV (and its cousins in the Herpesviridae family) is a "gift that keeps on giving" because once someone gets it, the virus is with him/her as long as he/she is alive. As it happens, VZV is the same virus that causes chick...