Shingles is the grown-up version of chickenpox, affecting people who had the itchy-scratchy virus as a kid—which is about 99.5 percent of Americans over 40. Shingles usually manifests as pain, itching or tingling that starts on one side of your face or body, then turns into a nasty rash, at times accompanied by fever, headaches, upset stomach and nerve pain. Shingles has been on the rise since the 1990s—there are about a million cases in the U.S. every year—and while doctors don’t know why, they’re sure it’s not related to prevalence of the chickenpox vaccine, as one common theory suggests.
High Rates of Shingles
