Herpes zoster, a commonly seen condition in daily medical practice, is reported to occur in 10–20% of the population at some time during the lifespan. Chronic, intractable postherpetic neuralgia, a sequela of herpes zoster, presents a clinical challenge. In recent years, effective antiviral agents that can be used in the outpatient setting have been developed for the treatment of herpes zoster ...

BACKGROUND In 2013, a herpes zoster vaccination programme was introduced in England for adults aged 70 years with a phased catch-up programme for those aged 71-79 years. We aimed to evaluate the effect of the first 3 years of the vaccination programme on incidence of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia in this population. METHODS In this population-based study, we extracted data from the...

Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is a distinctive clinical condition caused by the reactivation of latent varicella zoster (chickenpox) virus following an initial infection. Approximately 1 million cases of herpes zoster occur annually in the US, and one in every three people develops herpes zoster during their lifetime. Postherpetic neuralgia is a neuropathic pain syndrome characterized ...

Postherpetic neuralgia is a chronic pain syndrome that is often difficult to treat and can lead to a disabling disease if it is resistant to therapy. Presented here is the case of a 46-year-old patient with human immunodeficiency virus infection and chronic, treatment-resistant neuralgia. Postherpetic pain resolved after treatment with 1 cycle of subcutaneous recombinant interleukin-2.

For some patients, herpes zoster infections not only result in acute pain but serious consequences, including postherpetic neuralgia and damage to ocular tissues. Some authors have recommended corticosteroids for the treatment of these acute symptoms and complications. The literature concerning the use of corticosteroids for herpes zoster, however, either provides conflicting results or include...

BACKGROUND The incidence and severity of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia increase with age in association with a progressive decline in cell-mediated immunity to varicella-zoster virus (VZV). We tested the hypothesis that vaccination against VZV would decrease the incidence, severity, or both of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia among older adults. METHODS We enrolled 38,546 a...

background: we aimed to study the curative effects of botulinum a toxin (btx-a) on the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia (pnh). methods: we enrolled 58 pnh patients and treated them with hypodermic injection of btx-a in xiangyang no.1 people’s hospital, hubei university of medicine, hubei, china. we measured and compared the visual analog score (vas), neuropathy pain scale (nps), quality of ...

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a common complication of herpes zoster, frequently unresponsive to most available treatment. The disease is especially difficult to manage in elderly people and has a great impact on the quality of life of patients. Narrow band ultraviolet B radiation may play a role in the prevention and treatment of PHN. Present paper describes a case of a 59 year-old female pa...