Can Shingles Become Life Threatening

Find out what the recovery stages of shingles are and how you can help minimize the symptoms.

Can shingles become life threatening.

However when left untreated shingles may cause complications. Shingles isn t just a nasty and extremely painful experience. Shingles can be life threatening if you have hiv diabetes or other illnesses that decreases the strength of your immune system. Shingles recovery tends to follow a pattern and may take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks or more.

Some people develop complications after shingles including nerve pain called post herpetic neuropathy. Today the varicella vaccine is given to young children and to. Instead of the itchy rash seen children adults who get chickenpox often develop severe life threatening lung or brain infections. While shingles itself is almost never life threatening it can lead to serious problems such as the loss of eyesight.

For adults who are otherwise fairly healthy shingles is not life threatening though it can be quite uncomfortable.