Famciclovir and valaciclovir were approved for use in the treatment of herpes zoster despite controversy over antiviral therapy in zoster due to high costs and uncertain benefits. To explore these issues, a Markov decision model was developed, and the incremental cost effectiveness of antiviral treatment for herpes zoster was estimated using these agents compared with no antiviral therapy. A th...

Herpes zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia deteriorate the quality of life because of severe pain and complications, and cause considerable social and economic burden of disease. In 2012, herpes zoster vaccine was released in Korea. The efficacy of herpes zoster vaccine is known to be 51.3-66.5% among the aged over 60 and 69.8-72.4% among adults between 50 and 59. It is also known that preventiv...

herpes zoster occurs at a low frequency among immunocompetent individuals. Particularly in young people, recurrent herpes zoster is known to be rare [1]. As the authors found a case of a young woman with no particular past medical history in whom herpes zoster recurred and IgG subclass deficiency was diagnosed on additional testings, we herein report the case. The patient was a 32-year-old woma...

OBJECTIVE To investigate risk factors for postherpetic neuralgia, the neuropathic pain that commonly follows herpes zoster. METHODS Using primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, we fitted multivariable logistic regression models to investigate potential risk factors for postherpetic neuralgia (defined as pain ≥90 days after zoster, based on diagnostic or prescription c...

Background: Herpes zoster is a disease that more frequently seen in people aged over 50 years and negatively affects the quality of life due to development post-herpetic neuralgia. This study aimed investigate demographic clinical characteristics patients diagnosed with herpes zoster. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data who were followed up diagnosis at dermatology department between 2...

Herpes zoster, the latent descendent of the varicella zoster virus, commonly is seen in clinical practice. Healthcare providers must recognize and treat the virus to decrease the incidence of postherpetic neuralgic pain syndrome. Treatment with an antiviral medication regimen should be initiated rapidly for patients who have had lesions for up to 72 hours. Acyclovir has been the treatment of ch...

To analyse the epidemiological characteristics and related costs of herpes zoster in Taiwan, a nationally representative cohort of 1,000,000 individuals from the National Health Insurance register was followed up from 2000 to 2006 and their claims data analysed. Overall, 34,280 patients were diagnosed with zoster (incidence 4.89/1000 person-years) and 2944 patients (8.6%) developed post-herpeti...

Herpes zoster neural injury was assessed by determining cutaneous nerve density in skin biopsies from the affected dermatomes of 35 adult patients with herpes zoster in the acute phase and 3 months post-treatment, using protein gene product 9.5 immunohistochemistry. In contrast to the significant increase in subepidermal nerve fibre density (11.77 ± 4.88/mm vs. 13.29 ± 5.74/mm, p = 0.045) after...

Herpes zoster (or shingles), an infectious disease caused by reactivation of latent varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in the dorsal root or cranial nerve ganglia, typically manifests as unilateral acute pain accompanied by a vesicular rash. The acute pain and rash usually resolve within 2– 4 weeks without treatment. Postherpetic neuralgia, commonly defined as pain that lasts .3 months after the onse...