Shingles
: An acute infection caused by the virus Herpes zoster, which also causes chickenpox. Shingles usually emerges in adulthood after exposure to chickenpox or reactivation of the chickenpox virus, which can remain latent in body tissues for years until the immune system is weakened. It is an extraordinarily painful condition that involves inflammation of sensory nerves. Treatment is by antiviral medication and pain medication. See also Shingles pain and Postherpetic neuralgia.
* * *
* * *
shin·gles 'shiŋ-gəlz n pl but sing in constr an acute viral inflammation of the sensory ganglia of spinal and cranial nerves associated with a vesicular eruption and neuralgic pain and caused by reactivation of the herpesvirus causing chicken pox
called also herpes zoster, zona, zoster
* * *
n.
* * *
shin·gles (shingґgəlz) [L. cingulus] herpes zoster.
Medical dictionary.
2011.