this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
241 points (99.6% liked)
science
17719 readers
749 users here now
A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It lives in your nerve stems and never goes away. It just waits until your immune system is low enough to spread again.
Right, so would the vaccine help then?
I wouldn't take my word for it, but yes. It's usually from having had chickenpox as a kid, the herpes zoster virus hides dormant in your nerve stems, where the immune system cannot get to them. I'd imagine any improvement to your immune response will help keep it in check.
This is the correct answer. No, we are not doctors. Yes, it is known that shingles does NOT go away and re-occurs in about 1-10 cases if left untreated. The treatment is a highly effective vaccine that if you are of age you should definitely get regardless of if you've had a shingles flareup previously.