I have Shingles on my face, not Temporal arteritis!Can it be spread by washcloth to another part of the body?

I have Shingles, not Temporal arteritis, on my face. Lots of pain and now blisters coming. Can it be spread to other parts of the body with a washcloth, etc. or does it only travel nerve paths? Also, can children get chicken pox after having the shot to prevent it? yanksgirl

I already have it over my eye and a lesion or so inside. I'm on 3000 mg. of antiviral meds, a bacitracin eye ointment and also Neurontin to help the nerve endings heal. My eye is swollen almost shut and really red all over. The doctor said to expect that. they checked my cornea and everthing looked good.

No, shingles is not contagious. You can鈥檛 catch shingles from someone who has it. But you can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles. So, if you鈥檝e never had chickenpox, try to stay away from anyone who has shingles.Shingles is a disease that affects nerves and causes pain and blisters in adults. It is caused by the same varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus does not leave your body, but continues to live in some nerve cells. For reasons that aren鈥檛 totally understood, the virus can become active instead of remaining inactive. When it鈥檚 activated, it produces shingles.

Just like chickenpox, people with shingles will feel sick and have a rash on their body or face. The major difference is that chickenpox is a childhood illness, while shingles targets older people. Most adults live with the virus in their body and never get shingles. But about one in five people who have had chickenpox will get shingles later in life鈥攗sually after the age of 50.

When the activated virus travels along the path of a nerve to the surface of the skin, a rash will appear. It usually shows up as a band on one side of the face or body. The word 鈥渟hingles鈥?comes from the Latin word for belt or girdle because often the rash is shaped like a belt.

kids who have had the chicken pox shot can break out with a mild rash but it is not as bad as it would be without the shot...

No, you can't spread shingles, it is of course a form of the herpes virus and very painful. You maybe able to find relief with natural products. I don't know if kids can get chicken pox after having the shot, to me anything is possible.

The herpes virus that causes shingles is the same one that causes chicken pox in children. Once infected, you have it. No, it is already in your system, so it cannot spread via a wash cloth. The theory is that a child will not get chicken pox after the shot. But chicken pox is the most contagious disease in the world. Most of the time, all a kid gets is the pox and a lot of discomfort. On occasion, it is deadly, just like anything else. I am glad you have only shingles, but do remember that you will need to be vigilant -- see your physician immediately if it starts for your eye.......

Can't spread it to other parts of your body. Your body's immune system would kill it before it spread somewhere else. The reason you still have shingles outbreaks is that the virus hides out in your nerves. Your body won't kill its own nerve cells, even if those nerve cells are harboring the virus.

Anyway, upshot is that the virus will stay in those nerves as long as you live, but will be dormant most of the time (I've had one shingles outbreak in the 22 years since I had chicken pox).

The idea behind the vaccine is that it is supposed to prevent the kid from getting chicken pox. That being said, no vaccine is 100 % perfect. Also, many kids get a very mild case of chicken pox from the shot itself.

Corneal ulceration is one of the dangers of shingles eruptions on the face. Sounds like your doctor is on top of things.

Your right about the nerve path.. But while the blistering is going on and your running a fever I would be careful just because you don't want to go thu that any where else in your body. As far as the chickenpox, I don't know.. I think anything is possible but probably unlikely.

Shingles most certainly IS contagious, but not as contagious as chicken pox: you can spread the varicella virus to other susceptible persons through contact, but not by respiratory droplet. You can't spread it to toher parts of your body, however. Shingles may re-erupt later in a different part of your body, but that is still a re-eruption of your primary (chicken pox) infection which has lain dormant in nerves.

The varicella vaccine is only about 80% effective against contracting chicken pox. However, since shingles is much less contagious than chicken pox, you dont need to worry about just being in the same room as a susceptible person, but they should not kiss your eye.