Can Shingles Cause Kidney Problems

Are Chickenpox And Shingles Serious Illnesses

Shingles: Pathophysiology, Symptoms, 3 stages of Infection, Complications, Management, Animation.

The symptoms may be more severe in newborns, persons with weakened immune systems, and adults. Serious problems can occur and may include pneumonia , brain infection , and kidney problems. Many people are not aware that before a vaccine was available, approximately 10,600 persons were hospitalized, and 100 to 150 died, as a result of chickenpox in the U.S. every year.

Study Selection And Eligibility Criteria

Two reviewers, O.C.Y and L.S.G, independently evaluated the articles for eligibility through screening of the title and abstract first, followed by full text. Consensus on the eligibility of the articles was sought, and F.F.V was involved if there was disagreement and would act as an adjudicator.

A study is included if it is found to be relevant with regards to varicella infection in ESRD: the prevalence of seronegativity, the complications of the infection, or safety and efficacy of varicella vaccination to adult patients with ESRD or CKD. Case reports and cohort were included if measurable outcomes of death, complications, or length of stay were described. Records on herpes zoster, acyclovir, and non-renal solid organ transplants were excluded. Records on paediatric/ child populations were excluded.

Shingles And The Bladder

When a nerve is irritated, as with a shingles infection, it becomes inflamed, which affects the function of the nerve and all structures attached to the nerve. In some instances, nerves become hyperactive and overstimulate the structure. In the case of the detrusor muscle, which controls contraction and emptying of the bladder, overstimulation will result in frequent urination , a sudden need to urinate and leakage associated with urgency –all symptoms of an overactive bladder. In other instances, nerve inflammation can disrupt signal transmission, preventing the structure from functioning properly. If inflammation disrupts transmission to the sphincter muscles, the muscles may no longer contract fully, resulting in urine leakage. Or, the muscles may not fully relax, resulting in difficulty urinating. If inflammation disrupts the signals to, or from, the brain the bladder may retain urine, leading to overflow incontinence, infection and even kidney damage.

When a nerve is irritated, as with a shingles infection, it becomes inflamed, which affects the function of the nerve and all structures attached to the nerve.
In the case of the detrusor muscle, which controls contraction and emptying of the bladder, overstimulation will result in frequent urination , a sudden need to urinate and leakage associated with urgency –all symptoms of an overactive bladder.

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Impact Of The Disease

23 articles reported on the impact of the disease including complications from varicella, length of stay, and mortality . Collectively, there were nineteen deaths reported from the studies. Errasti, et al. reported four patients in which two died both patients had significant complications and multiorgan failure . On the other hand, two other patients that had no complications survived the infection. Ishikawa, et al. reported two patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation . Fehr et al. reported four cases in which all survived while their review of the literature revealed overall varicella mortality rates to be 34% . Other deaths from varicella in ESRD were due to respiratory failures , multiorgan failure , nervous system neuropathy and hepatitis . Length of stay has been reported to vary from 2 to 40 days. Other reported complications were pancreatitis, retinal necrosis, secondary bacterial infection, acute kidney injury, myocarditis, microangiopathy, Darriers disease, and even Guillain-Barre syndrome.

What Are The Symptoms Of Shingles

Shingles: What You Should Do If the Chicken Pox Virus Returns

Two to four days before the shingles rash occurs there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Pain is usually the first sign of shingles. For some, the pain can be intense. In some cases, and depending on the location of the pain, shingles can be mistaken for problems with the heart, lungs, or kidneys. Furthermore, patients may also experience headaches, fever, dizziness, sensitivity to light, and flu-like symptoms without a fever. And, there are cases where some patients experience shingles pain without ever developing the rash.

As time progresses, tingling, itching, joint pain, swollen glands, and a burning pain often develops. The rash typically appears one to five days after the symptoms begin, starting with small, red spots that form blisters filled with fluid, and then scab over. If the blisters burst from scratching, the skin may scar after the rash subsides.

The shingles skin rash usually heals within two to four weeks however, some people develop ongoing nerve pain that can last for months or years, a condition called postherpetic neuralgia.

The rash caused by shingles is more painful than itchy, with the pain and rash being the most obvious signs of shingles. The skin rash tends to be isolated to one side of the body, or in a particular location on the body. Shingles most commonly develops in the areas of the chest, stomach, spine, face, and mouth, but can appear other places on the body, even in multiple locations.

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Is It Possible To Avoid Shingles

Most people get shingles only once, but it is possible to get it two or more times.

Anyone who has had chickenpox can get shingles later in life. There is a shingles vaccine that may help prevent shingles, or make it less painful. The vaccine is recommended for adults ages 60 and older, even if theyve previous had shingles.

For children and adults who never had chickenpox, there is a vaccine that can help avoid getting the virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles.

For anyone who has never had chickenpox and has not received the chickenpox vaccine, it is best to avoid contact with people who have shingles or chickenpox. Fluid from shingles blisters is contagious and can cause chickenpox, but not shingles.

What Illnesses Does Varicella

Chickenpox first occurs as a blister-like skin rash and fever. It takes from 10-21 days after exposure for someone to develop chickenpox. The sores commonly occur in batches with different stages present at the same time. The blisters usually scab over in 5 days. A person with chickenpox is contagious 1-2 days before the rash appears and until all blisters have formed scabs. Children with weakened immune systems may have blisters occurring for a prolonged time period. Adults can develop severe pneumonia and other serious complications.

Shingles occurs when the virus, which has been inactive for some time, becomes active again. Severe pain and numbness along nerve pathways, commonly on the trunk or on the face, are present. Clusters of blisters appear 1 to 5 days later. The blisters are usually on one side of the body and closer together than in chickenpox. Shingles does not spread as shingles from one person to another. If people who have never had chickenpox come in contact with the fluid from shingles blisters, they can develop chickenpox.

When To Seek Medical Advice

Shingles: What you need to know about causes, symptoms, and prevention.

Shingles is not usually serious, but you should see your GP as soon as possible if you recognise the symptoms. Early treatment may help reduce the severity of your symptoms and the risk of developing complications.

You should also see your GP if you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system and you think you have been exposed to someone with chickenpox or shingles and haven’t had chickenpox before.

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Shingles Symptoms Before Rash

Shingles develops in two stages. The first is called the prodromal period.

Shingles is a reactivation of the varicella virus, which is what causes chickenpox. After an initial infection, the virus lays dormant in the body. Once reactivated, which can happen years down the line, shingles results.

Often, the earliest signs this is occurring are similar to what you’d expect at the start of any infection. These symptoms sometimes occur at times when you’re feeling stressed or run down. They are also systemic, meaning they affect the whole body.

You may assume you’re just overtired or coming down with a cold when you actually have shingles.

Higher Intensity Of Pain With Internal Shingles

While both regular shingles and internal shingles can cause preherpetic neuralgia, this condition has been found to be more severe in the latter case.

One study found that at the onset of symptoms, after one month, and after three months, internal shingles patients had consistently more severe and persistent pain. Overall, however, preherpetic neuralgia occurs much more frequently in regular herpes zoster patients.

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Study Population And Study Design

All study cohorts were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance program in Taiwan covers almost 99% of the entire population of 22 million people. The National Health Research Institute used the original data from the NHI database to construct a longitudinal database of patients who had been admitted between 1999 and 2008. This cohort included 2,619,534 hospitalized patients, representing 10% of all NHI enrollees and included demographics, disease and procedure codes for both clinical visits and hospitalization and medical costs and payments. This sampling fraction was based on a regulation that limits the maximal amount of NHI data that can be extracted for research purposes. Pre-admission comorbidities were determined as a specific entity recorded in at least one hospital admission or at least three outpatient department visits during the year prior to the index hospitalization, which was a relatively strict criterion and was well validated with good predicting power,,.

Conflict Of Interest Statement

J.H.A. reports grants from the Medical College of Georgia and the Translational Research Program of the Department of Medicine during the conduct of the study. M.F.K. and N.S.N. report grants from Dialysis Clinic, Inc. during the conduct of the study. The results presented in this paper have not been published previously in whole or part, except in abstract format.

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Limitations And Future Research

The first limitation is the heterogeneity of the population in the studies that were included. The aim of this review is to review the available literature of adult populations with ESRD comprehensively. However, most studies included only subset populations of ESRD namely renal transplant recipients or patients on haemodialysis and therefore findings may not be fully representative of the overall population of ESRD. Therefore, there is a real need for study varicella among patients with ESRD without renal transplantation. To date, guidelines by the US Veterans Affairs and Canadian Public Health Agency are the only two available ones to advocate vaccination even, among chronic kidney disease, while most of the published guidelines advocate vaccination among ESRD. Studies on varicella among CKD patients may help to give insight whether vaccinating patients once they are diagnosed with CKD of certain stages may prevent this vulnerable group of patients from contracting varicella.

There is some heterogeneity in the reports of prevalence of varicella immunity among patients in ESRD. Three described the prevalence among ESRD patients who yet to contract varicella while four described the prevalence in already infected ESRD patients . Despite the comprehensive search, the number of available studies in the literature is low, they were summarised together in Table .

Nerve Control Of The Bladder

The urinary bladder is a muscular pouch that collects urine until it is ready to be removed from the body. In a healthy urinary system, there is a series of muscles and sensory nerves that all signal the brain when the bladder is full.These same muscles also send out sensory signals making us consciously aware of the need for elimination. There are also voluntary muscles that allow us to continue holding urine until it is convenient to eliminate. All of these nerves and muscles work together to allow us to urinate in the right place, at the right time. In a neurologically compromised urinary system, signals are not transmitted properly, leading to bladder dysfunction.

The urinary bladder is a muscular pouch that collects urine until it is ready to be removed from the body.

Side Effects Of The Shingles Vaccine: Is It Safe

Shingles is a painful rash caused by varicella zoster, the same virus responsible for chickenpox.

If you had chickenpox as a child, the virus hasnt completely gone away. It hides dormant in your body and can reemerge many years later as shingles.

About 1 in 3 people in the United States will develop shingles in their lifetime. This is why vaccination is important. But you should also be prepared for possible side effects. In this article, well discuss the side effects, and talk about who should get the vaccine.

Older adults are most likely to develop shingles. This is why the shingles vaccine is recommended for people ages 50 and older.

Shingrix is the only shingles vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration .

The Shingrix vaccine is a recombinant vaccine. This means vaccine manufacturers created it by altering and purifying DNA that creates an immune response to fight the virus.

The CDC recommends Shingrix for the prevention of shingles and related complications. The Shingrix vaccine is also recommended for anyone who has already gotten another type of shingles vaccine.

Currently, the CDC recommends healthy people ages 50 and older get the Shingrix vaccine. Doctors administer the vaccine in two doses, which are given 2 to 6 months apart.

The Shingrix vaccine has high success rates in protecting people against shingles.

The Shingrix vaccine is as much as effective in preventing shingles. The same is true for Shingrix and postherpetic neuralgia.

I’m Pregnant And Have Recently Been Exposed To Someone With Chickenpox How Will This Exposure Affect Me Or My Pregnancy

Shingles: Signs, Symptoms and Treatment with Dr. Mark Shalauta | San Diego Health

Susceptible pregnant women are at risk for associated complications when they contract varicella. Varicella infection causes severe illness in pregnant women, and 10%-20% of those infected develop varicella pneumonia, with mortality reported as high as 40%.
Because of these risks, pregnant women without evidence of immunity to varicella who have been exposed to the virus may be given varicella-zoster immune globulin to reduce their risk of disease complications.
If you are pregnant and have never had chickenpox, and you get chickenpox during the:

First half of your pregnancy, there is a very slight risk for birth defects or miscarriage.
Second half of your pregnancy, the baby may have infection without having any symptoms and then get shingles later in life.

Newborns whose mothers develop varicella rash from 5 days before to 2 days after delivery are at risk for neonatal varicella, associated with mortality as high as 30%. These infants should receive preventive treatment with varicella-zoster immune globulin .

Immunogenicity And Safety Of Varicella Vaccination

Three studies examined the seroconversion rate or post vaccination after administration of two doses of varicella vaccine. All three studies have limited number of patients. Crespo, et al. reported a highly encouraging response rate of 94% while Geel, et al. and Kho, et al. found that the response rate to be around 6477%. Table summarises the seroconversion rates of selected studies.

As far as safety is concerned, Crespo, et al. and Geel, et al. found no secondary effect of vaccination . None of their vaccinated patients developed the varicella-zoster disease. Kho, et al. followed up 52 patients post-vaccination for complications and found one to have primary varicella and two to have herpes zoster . Only one reported pain at injection site, no cellulitis or skin infection was reported. Interestingly, Scanlon-Kohlroser, et al. reported a case where transmission of varicella took place from two infants that were vaccinated to a post-renal transplant patient . Table summarises the complications of the vaccine.

How To Decrease Your Risk Of Complications

Treating shingles early can help shorten the lifespan of the virus.

If youre able to shorten the infection, youll decrease your risk for complications from the virus. Antiviral medication is recommended as a first line of treatment when youre diagnosed with shingles.

Getting a varicella vaccination can help you to avoid contracting shingles and chickenpox. Even if youve already had shingles, a vaccination against shingles can help to prevent the virus from reactivating in your system.

The most common complication associated with shingles is postherpetic neuralgia . PHN is long-term nerve pain that can occur in the area where your shingles rash appeared.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , of people experience PHN after a shingles outbreak.

The older you are when your shingles appears, the higher your risk for long-term nerve pain.

If the virus is left untreated, your risk for other complications related to shingles

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Preventing The Virus Spreading

If you have the shingles rash, do not share towels or flannels, go swimming, or play contact sports. This will help prevent the virus being passed on to someone who has not had chickenpox.

You should also avoid work or school if your rash is weeping and cannot be covered.

Chickenpox can be particularly dangerous for certain groups of people. If you have shingles, avoid:

women who are pregnant and have not had chickenpox before as they could catch it from you, which may harm their unborn baby
people who have a weak immune system, such as someone with HIV or AIDS
babies less than one month old, unless it is your own baby, in which case your baby should have antibodies to protect them from the virus

Once your blisters have dried and scabbed over, you are no longer contagious and will not need to avoid anyone.