What is herpes zoster? my son was advised to rest due to this.?

Chickenpox, which can also lead to shingles. (Why your MD was recommending rest.)

Chickenpox

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Herpes zoster, colloquially known as shingles, is the reactivation of varicella zoster virus, leading to a crop of painful blisters over the area of a dermatome. It occurs very rarely in children and adults, but its incidence is high in the elderly (over 60), as well as in any age group of immunocompromised patients. It affects some 500,000 people per year in the United States. Treatment is generally with antiviral drugs such as aciclovir. Many patients develop a painful condition called postherpetic neuralgia which is often difficult to manage.

In some patients, herpes zoster can reactivate subclinically with pain in a dermatomal distribution without rash. This condition is known as zoster sine herpete and may be more complicated, affecting multiple levels of the nervous system and causing multiple cranial neuropathies, polyneuritis, myelitis, or aseptic meningitis.

The word herpes comes from the Greek word for snake; it is cognate with herpetology. Interestingly, the skin disease is also commonly known as "snake" in Chinese.

toadhopper422 answer is very good, but I would like to add some points

Herpes Zoster (shingles) does occur in children, but post-herpetic neuralgia is much more rare in children than adults. Most cases of zoster resolve without complications

Zoster may occur in otherwise healthy kids, but can commonly occur in immune compromised patients (chemotherapy, HIV, chronic steroid use).

Two aspects can complicate zoster:
1. Immune compromised patients can have much more severe disease

2. Zoster involving the face around the eye can also be a sign of cornya involvement. These childen should be referred to an ophthomalogist immediately for evaluation. If untreated, it can scar the cornea and cause blindness.

That being said, the vast majority of zoster is benign. Be sure to keep the rash covered. Contact by an unimmunized people (people who never received the varicella vaccine) or people who have never had chicken pox can contract the primary disease, which is chicken pox.

toadhopper422, hit the nail on the head. The only way you can get this as a child is with a compromised immune system.