April 26, 2012 12:00 AM

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. following resolution of chickenpox, the virus — varicella zoster virus, or VZV — lies dormant in the spinal dorsal root ganglia until a decrease in cellular immunity triggers the reactivation of the virus, resulting in herpes zoster, otherwise known as shingles. Herpes zoster is not caused by the same virus that causes genital herpes, a sexually transmitted disease.

People who have medical conditions that weaken their immune systems, such as certain cancers and human immunodeficiency virus, and people who receive immunosuppressive drugs such as steroids and drugs given after organ transplantation, also are at greater risk of getting shingles.

There are an estimated 1 million cases each year in the U.S. Anyone who has recovered from chickenpox may develop shingles. Half of all cases occur among men and women age 60 years and older. People who develop shingles typically have only one episode in their lifetime. Widespread vaccination for varicella has reduced the incidence of primary VZV infection in the U.S. by up to 90 percent since its introduction in 1995.

Shingles usually starts as a painful rash on one side of the face or body. the rash forms blisters that typically scab over in seven to 10 days and clear up within two to four weeks.

Before the rash develops, there is often pain, itching or tingling in the area where the rash will develop. this may happen one to five days before the rash appears.

Most commonly, the rash occurs in a single stripe around either the left or the right side of the body. in rare cases, usually among people with weakened immune systems, the rash may be more widespread and look similar to a chickenpox rash. Shingles can affect the eyes and has the positional to cause loss of vision.

Other symptoms of shingles can include fever, headache, chills and an upset stomach.

Postherpetic neuralgia, the most common complication of shingles, is characterized by severe pain in the areas where the shingles rash occurred, and can take place even after the rash has cleared up.

Very rarely, shingles can also lead to pneumonia, hearing problems, blindness, brain inflammation (encephalitis) or death.

Diagnosis of shingles is based primarily on patient history and a physical examination. in select patient populations, the presentation of shingles can be atypical and may require additional testing.

A person with shingles can spread the virus when the rash is in the blister phase. a person is not infectious before blisters appear. once the rash has developed crusts, the person is no longer contagious.

Shingles is less contagious than chickenpox and the risk of a person with shingles spreading the virus is low, if the rash is covered.

If you have shingles:

• keep the rash covered.
• Do not touch or scratch the rash.
• Wash your hands often to prevent the spread of the virus.
• until your rash has developed crusts, avoid contact with pregnant women, newborn babies and immune compromised persons.

The only way to reduce the risk of developing shingles and the long-term pain that can follow shingles is to get vaccinated. the Center for Disease Control recommends a onetime dose of the Zoster vaccine for people 60 years of age and older to help prevent shingles. this vaccine is not advised for immune-compromised patients.

Several antiviral medicines — acyclovir, valacyclovir and famciclovir — are available to treat shingles. these medicines will help shorten the length and severity of the illness. but to be effective, they must be started as soon as possible after the rash appears. thus people who have or think they might have shingles should call their health care provider as soon as possible to discuss treatment options.

Pain medicine may help relieve the pain caused by shingles. Wet compresses, calamine lotion and colloidal oatmeal baths may help relieve some of the itching.

Dr. Mazhar Jakhro specializes in family medicine, providing health care for families and individuals of all ages. Board certified in family medicine, Dr. Jakhro is part of Southcoast Physicians Group, practicing at Southcoast Health System, a full-service medical practice in Wareham. Dr. Jakhro is accepting new patients and can be reached at 508-273-4950.

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When Bud began to complain to his wife about back pains, Anna assumed it was just the normal aches and pains that come with age. when a painful rash appeared across the left side of Bud’s back, their doctor diagnosed herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles.

Anna and Bud were shocked because most doctors, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, normally recommend a shingles vaccine to those over 60. Bud is 52.

Shingles usually presents as a blister-like rash on one side of the body and can be accompanied by flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache or nausea.

Chickenpox and shingles are caused by similar viruses and, if you had chickenpox as a child, the virus can remain dormant in your body and be awakened by a triggering factor such as physical or emotional stress — manifesting in shingles. certain drugs can also increase your risk for shingles, such as alpha blockers, which are sometimes prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis.

A case of shingles can last three to five weeks and, although it may be extremely painful, most afflicted people will recover without serious complications and will not get shingles again.

Shingles can spread to someone who has not had chickenpox, but that person will not get shingles — they will develop chickenpox. The frightening statistic is that 1 out of every 3 people in the United States will develop shingles, and there are an estimated 1 million cases each year in this country. Risk for the disease increases with age, which is why the vaccine is sometimes recommended by doctors for older patients.

Bud had chickenpox before age 1, which made him more likely to get shingles at a younger age. Anna does not know if she had chickenpox as a child; she is an only child and her parents are deceased.

Anna’s situation gives rise to a good suggestion for all of us, which is to do the best we can to chronicle our illnesses, vaccines and medications, as well as those of our children. More and more hospitals and doctors are now required to keep medical records digitally stored for their patients, but what if the information is not available? What if you die and have not given information about childhood illnesses and family medical history to your children? Your children could find themselves in Anna’s situation — not sure if she should get a shingles vaccine or be otherwise concerned about exposure to the virus.

take a few minutes to document as much information as you can about your medical history, the childhood illnesses of your children and as much history as you can about your parents, grandparents and siblings. Give a copy of the information to your children and place a copy with your other important legal documents — particularly your advance health care directive — then keep the information current. if you become incapacitated, this written history will need to speak for you.

Liza Horvath has over 25 years experience in the estate planning and trust fields and is the manager of the trust department of a local bank. if you have a question, call 915-0272 or email liza@montereytrust.com.

One might be tempted to dismiss the bulk of Flegr’s work as hokum—the fanciful imaginings of a lone, eccentric scholar—were it not for the pioneering research of Joanne Webster, a parasitologist at Imperial College London. Just as Flegr was embarking on his human trials, Webster, then a freshly minted Ph.D., was launching studies of Toxo-infected rodents, reasoning, just as Flegr did, that as hosts of the parasite, they would be likely targets for behavioral manipulation.

She quickly confirmed, as previous researchers had shown, that infected rats were more active and less cautious in areas where predators lurk. but then, in a simple, elegant experiment, she and her colleagues demonstrated that the parasite did something much more remarkable. they treated one corner of each rat’s enclosure with the animal’s own odor, a second with water, a third with cat urine, and the last corner with the urine of a rabbit, a creature that does not prey on rodents. “We thought the parasite might reduce the rats’ aversion to cat odor,” she told me. “Not only did it do that, but it actually increased their attraction. they spent more time in the cat-treated areas.” She and other scientists repeated the experiment with the urine of dogs and minks, which also prey on rodents. the effect was so specific to cat urine, she says, that “we call it ‘fatal feline attraction.’”

She began tagging the parasite with fluorescent markers and tracking its progress in the rats’ bodies. Given the surgically precise way the microbe alters behavior, Webster anticipated that it would end up in localized regions of the brain. but the results defied expectations. “We were quite surprised to find the cysts—the parasite’s dormant form—all over the brain in what otherwise appeared to be a happy, healthy rat,” she says. Nonetheless, the cysts were most abundant in a part of the brain that deals with pleasure (in human terms, we’re talking sex, drugs, and rock and roll) and in another area that’s involved in fear and anxiety (post-traumatic stress disorder affects this region of the brain). perhaps, she thought, T. gondii uses a scattershot approach, disseminating cysts far and wide, enabling a few of them to zero in on the right targets.

To gain more clarity on the matter, she sought the aid of the parasitologist Glenn McConkey, whose team at the University of Leeds was probing the protozoan’s genome for signs of what it might be doing. the approach brought to light a striking talent of the parasite: it has two genes that allow it to crank up production of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the host brain. “We never cease to be amazed by the sophistication of these parasites,” Webster says.

Their findings, reported last summer, created immediate buzz. Dopamine is a critical signaling molecule involved in fear, pleasure, and attention. Furthermore, the neurotransmitter is known to be jacked up in people with schizophrenia—another one of those strange observations about the disease, like its tendency to erode gray matter, that have long puzzled medical researchers. Antipsychotic medicine designed to quell schizophrenic delusions apparently blocks the action of dopamine, which had suggested to Webster that what it might really be doing is thwarting the parasite. Scientists had already shown that adding the medicine to a petri dish where T. gondii is happily dividing will stunt the organism’s growth. so Webster decided to feed the antipsychotic drug to newly infected rats to see how they reacted. Lo and behold, they didn’t develop fatal feline attraction. Suddenly, attributing behavioral changes to the microbe seemed much more plausible.

As the scientific community digested the British team’s dopamine discoveries, Robert Sapolsky’s lab at Stanford announced still more attention-grabbing news. the neuroscientist and his colleagues found that T. gondii disconnects fear circuits in the brain, which might help to explain why infected rats lose their aversion to cat odor. Just as startling, reports Sapolsky, the parasite simultaneously is “able to hijack some of the circuitry related to sexual arousal” in the male rat—probably, he theorizes, by boosting dopamine levels in the reward-processing part of the brain. so when the animal catches a whiff of cat scent, the fear center fails to fully light up, as it would in a normal rat, and instead the area governing sexual pleasure begins to glow. “In other words,” he says, “Toxo makes cat odor smell sexy to male rats.”

The neurobiologist Ajai Vyas, after working with Sapolsky on this study as a postdoctoral student, decided to inspect infected rats’ testicles for signs of cysts. sure enough, he found them there—as well as in the animals’ semen. and when the rat copulates, Vyas discovered, the protozoan moves into the female’s womb, typically infecting 60 percent of her pups, before traveling on up to her own brain—creating still more vehicles for ferrying the parasite back into the belly of a cat.

Could T. gondii be a sexually transmitted disease in humans too? “That’s what we hope to find out,” says Vyas, who now works at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore. the researchers also discovered that infected male rats suddenly become much more attractive to females. “It’s a very strong effect,” says Vyas. “Seventy-five percent of the females would rather spend time with the infected male.”

After I return from Prague, Flegr informs me that he’s just had a paper accepted for publication that, he claims, “proves fatal feline attraction in humans.” by that he means that infected men like the smell of cat pee—or at least they rank its scent much more favorably than uninfected men do. Displaying the characteristic sex differences that define many Toxo traits, infected women have the reverse response, ranking the scent even more offensive than do women free of the parasite. the sniff test was done blind and also included urine collected from a dog, horse, hyena, and tiger. Infection did not affect how subjects rated these other samples.

“Is it possible cat urine may be an aphrodisiac for infected men?,” I ask. “Yes. It’s possible. why not?” says Flegr. I think he’s smiling at the other end of the phone line, but I’m not sure, which leaves me wondering whether I’ve stumbled onto a topic ripe for a Saturday Night Live skit, or a matter worthy of medical concern. when I ask Sapolsky about Flegr’s most recent research, he says the effects Flegr is reporting “are incredibly cool. However, I’m not too worried, in that the effects on humans are not gigantic. If you want to reduce serious car accidents, and you had to choose between curing people of Toxo infections versus getting people not to drive drunk or while texting, go for the latter in terms of impact.”

In fact, Sapolsky thinks that Toxo’s inventiveness might even offer us some benefits. If we can figure out how the parasite makes animals less fearful, he says, it might give us insights into how to devise treatments for people plagued by social-anxiety disorder, phobias, PTSD, and the like. “But frankly,” he adds, “this mostly falls into the ‘Get a load of this, can you believe what nature has come up with?’ category.”

Webster is more circumspect, if not downright troubled. “I don’t want to cause any panic,” she tells me. “In the vast majority of people, there will be no ill effects, and those who are affected will mostly demonstrate subtle shifts of behavior. but in a small number of cases, [Toxo infection] may be linked to schizophrenia and other disturbances associated with altered dopamine levels—for example, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and mood disorders. the rat may live two or three years, while humans can be infected for many decades, which is why we may be seeing these severe side effects in people. we should be cautious of dismissing such a prevalent parasite.”

The psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey agrees—though he came to this viewpoint from a completely different angle than either Webster or Flegr. His opinion stems from decades of research into the root causes of schizophrenia. “Textbooks today still make silly statements that schizophrenia has always been around, it’s about the same incidence all over the world, and it’s existed since time immemorial,” he says. “The epidemiology literature contradicts that completely.” In fact, he says, schizophrenia did not rise in prevalence until the latter half of the 18th century, when for the first time people in Paris and London started keeping cats as pets. the so-called cat craze began among “poets and left-wing avant-garde Greenwich Village types,” says Torrey, but the trend spread rapidly—and coinciding with that development, the incidence of schizophrenia soared.

Since the 1950s, he notes, about 70 epidemiology studies have explored a link between schizophrenia and T. gondii. when he and his colleague Robert Yolken, a neurovirologist at Johns Hopkins University, surveyed a subset of these papers that met rigorous scientific standards, their conclusion complemented the Prague group’s discovery that schizophrenic patients with Toxo are missing gray matter in their brains. Torrey and Yolken found that the mental illness is two to three times as common in people who have the parasite as in controls from the same region.

Human-genome studies, both scientists believe, are also in keeping with that finding—and might explain why schizophrenia runs in families. the most replicated result from that line of investigation, they say, suggests that the genes most commonly associated with schizophrenia relate to the immune system and how it reacts to infectious agents. so in many cases where the disease appears to be hereditary, they theorize, what may in fact be passed down is an aberrant or deficient immune response to invaders like T. gondii.

Epstein-Barr virus, mumps, rubella, and other infectious agents, they point out, have also been linked to schizophrenia—and there are probably more as yet unidentified triggers, including many that have nothing to do with pathogens. but for now, they say, Toxo remains the strongest environmental factor implicated in the disorder. “If I had to guess,” says Torrey, “I’d say 75 percent of cases of schizophrenia are associated with infectious agents, and Toxo would be involved in a significant subset of those.”

Just as worrisome, says Torrey, the parasite may also increase the risk of suicide. In a 2011 study of 20 European countries, the national suicide rate among women increased in direct proportion to the prevalence of the latent Toxo infection in each nation’s female population. According to Teodor Postolache, a psychiatrist and the director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a flurry of other studies, several conducted by his own team, offers further support of T. gondii’s link to higher rates of suicidal behavior. these include investigations of general populations as well as groups made up of patients with bipolar disorder, severe depression, and schizophrenia, and in places as diverse as Turkey, Germany, and the Baltimore/Washington area. Exactly how the parasite may push vulnerable people over the edge is yet to be determined. Postolache theorizes that what disrupts mood and the ability to control violent impulses may not be the organism per se, but rather neurochemical changes associated with the body’s immune response to it. “As far-fetched as these ideas may sound,” says Postolache, “the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention was willing to put money behind this research.”

Given all the nasty science swirling around this parasite, is it time for cat lovers to switch their allegiance to other animals?

Even Flegr would advise against that. Indoor cats pose no threat, he says, because they don’t carry the parasite. as for outdoor cats, they shed the parasite for only three weeks of their life, typically when they’re young and have just begun hunting. During that brief period, Flegr simply recommends taking care to keep kitchen counters and tables wiped clean. (He practices what he preaches: he and his wife have two school-age children, and two outdoor cats that have free roam of their home.) much more important for preventing exposure, he says, is to scrub vegetables thoroughly and avoid drinking water that has not been properly purified, especially in the developing world, where infection rates can reach 95 percent in some places. Also, he advises eating meat on the well-done side—or, if that’s not to your taste, freezing it before cooking, to kill the cysts.

As concerns about the latent infection mount, however, experts have begun thinking about more-aggressive steps to counter the parasite’s spread. Inoculating cats or livestock against T. gondii might be one way to interrupt its life cycle, offers Johns Hopkins’ Robert Yolken. Moving beyond prevention to treatment is a taller order. once the parasite becomes deeply ensconced in brain cells, routing it out of the body is virtually impossible: the thick-walled cysts are impregnable to antibiotics. Because T. gondii and the malaria protozoan are related, however, Yolken and other researchers are looking among antimalarial agents for more-effective drugs to attack the cysts. but for now, medicine has no therapy to offer people who want to rid themselves of the latent infection; and until solid proof exists that Toxo is as dangerous as some scientists now fear, pharmaceutical companies don’t have much incentive to develop anti-Toxo drugs.

Yolken hopes that will change. “To explain where we are in Toxo research today,” he says, “the analogy I always give is the ulcer bacteria. we first needed to find ways of treating the organism and showing that the disease went away when you did that. we will have to show that when we very effectively treat Toxoplasma, some portion of psychiatric illness goes away.”

But T. gondii is just one of an untold number of infectious agents that prey on us. and if the rest of the animal kingdom is anything to go by, says Colorado State University’s Janice Moore, plenty of them may be capable of tinkering with our minds. for example, she and Chris Reiber, a biomedical anthropologist at Binghamton University, in new York, strongly suspected that the flu virus might boost our desire to socialize. why? Because it spreads through close physical contact, often before symptoms emerge—meaning that it must find a new host quickly. To explore this hunch, Moore and Reiber tracked 36 subjects who received a flu vaccine, reasoning that it contains many of the same chemical components as the live virus and would thus cause the subjects’ immune systems to react as if they’d encountered the real pathogen.

The difference in the subjects’ behavior before and after vaccination was pronounced: the flu shot had the effect of nearly doubling the number of people with whom the participants came in close contact during the brief window when the live virus was maximally contagious. “People who had very limited or simple social lives were suddenly deciding that they needed to go out to bars or parties, or invite a bunch of people over,” says Reiber. “This happened with lots of our subjects. It wasn’t just one or two outliers.”

Reiber has her eye trained on other human pathogens that she thinks may well be playing similar games, if only science could prove it. for example, she says, many people at the end stages of AIDS and syphilis express an intense craving for sex. so, too, do individuals at the beginning of a herpes outbreak. these may just be anecdotal accounts, she concedes, but based on her own findings, she wouldn’t be surprised if these urges come from the pathogen making known its will to survive.

“We’ve found all kinds of excuses for why we do the things we do,” observes Moore. “‘My genes made me do it.’ ‘My parents are to blame.’ I’m afraid we may have reached the point where parasites may have to be added to the laundry list of excuses.”

She has a point. In fact, I’ve been wondering whether T. gondii might in some small way be contributing to my extreme extroversion—why I can’t resist striking up conversations everywhere I go, even when I’m short of time or with strangers I’ll never see again. then it occurs to me that cysts in my brain might be behind my seesaw moods or even my splurges on expensive clothes. maybe, I think with mounting conviction, the real me would have displayed better self-control, had I not been forced to swim upstream against the will of an insidious parasite. with my feline pal Pixie on my lap (for the record, she’s an outdoor cat), I call to get the results of my Toxo test. Negative. I don’t have the latent infection.

I call to tell Flegr the good news. Even though I’m relieved, I know my voice sounds flat. “It’s strange to admit,” I say, “but I think I’m a little disappointed.” he laughs. “People who have cats often feel that way, because they think the parasite explains why they behave this way or that,” he says. “But,” I protest, “you thought the same way.” then it hits me. I may have dodged T. gondii, but given our knack for fooling ourselves—plus all those parasites out there that may also be playing tricks on our minds—can anyone really know who’s running the show?

Kathleen McAuliffe is a writer focused on health and the biological sciences; she lives in Miami, Florida.

Springville, UT (PRWEB) January 28, 2012

If you have moles or warts, you know how embarrassing they can be. But the power of electro waveform technology is a proven,effective way to get rid of moles and even provide an effective wart treatment.

Warts and moles are commonly small and flat, often single but sometimes clustered. they usually develop on fingers, hands and feet, and less frequently on arms, legs, neck, abdomen or back. Planter warts are common on the sole of the foot and if inflamed, may cause ongoing irritation or pain. Skin warts and moles are not easily transferred by contact.

The VyGone Inhibitor Zapper literally zaps away moles and warts using the power of electro waveform technology. When applied to warts and moles and other areas affected by microscopic viruses, the mild electro waveform released by the VyGone Zapper stops viral activities and allow fast natural healing.

For the treatment of warts and moles, simply apply the Viral Inhibitor Pro for 4 full cycles in a circular pattern around the edge of the wart in a 4-star pattern. Because warts are typically dry, wet the skin for better electro signal conduction. Applications should be hourly, up to 8 times a day. Continue applications for several months until moles and warts shrink and fall off. MD, of Orem, Utah, said the healing power of the VyGone Zapper was amazing.

“My wife had a lot of moles,” MD said. “We treated these with the Viral Inhibitor Pro and they started to shrink. they were raised and became un-raised and started to disappear. Warts will also disappear, if you apply it regularly, they’ll just vanish! It wipes away genital warts and it wipes through warts wherever they occur.”

But the VyGone Zapper is not just effective against warts and moles. It also can be used to eliminate the symptoms of cold sores, genital warts, molluscum, genital herpes, and even shingles.

Cold sores are herpes viruses that are transmitted by kissing, eating or drinking after someone already infected with the virus. many people are infected unknowingly while they are still in their youth. the viruses – which are like a short DNA protein and are 100,000 times smaller than a cell — are not alive. Therefore, they can never be killed, so nothing can cure cold sores.

Instead, the viruses lie dormant until they enter cells, copy millions of times, then burst and invade more cells. When they do, symptoms of cold sores can include early irritation, tingling, itching, burning, redness, pain, fever and tightness.

When the damage from these eruptions is sensed by the body’s immune system, it toughens the cell walls, then “dilutes” and ejects the Herpes viruses in blisters and weeping lesions that may take weeks to heal. after the blisters fade away, some of the virus remains, enters nerves and resides there dormant until the next breakout. Eventually they re-emerge and attack again.

But the VyGone Zapper can stop the blisters and lesions caused by cold sore viruses from ever forming. Its electrical pulses simulate the neural signals that stop herpes activities outside nerves. without viral interference, the body’s fast natural healing can start to heal the outbreak.

The VyGone Zapper Pro is good for thousands and thousands of treatments. A typical cold sore can be dealt with in four to eight treatments. however, you can treat it as many times as you would like, and it can be used up to every half hour until the symptoms disappear.

People with moles, warts and other conditions now have a safe and effective tool to combat their often painful and embarrassing condition. Safe and effective the VyGone Zapper wart remover and mole eradicator can make these growths disappear forever. for more information about the electro waveform technology used by the VyGone Zapper, visit our website at VyGone.com.

Read the full story at prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9111916.htm

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Two more horses at Rancho Sierra Vista Equestrian Center have the potentially deadly virus known as neuropathogenic equine herpes virus-1, bringing the total number with the disease to 11, state officials said late Tuesday afternoon.

Officials from the California Department of Food and Agriculture also said that a horse with the virus that became lame in the hindquarters and was euthanized last week did not become lame because of the disease.

The virus, which presents with coldlike symptoms including fever and nasal discharge and can cause neurological damage, has been confirmed in horses only at Rancho Sierra Vista. three other equestrian centers in the area between Junipero Serra Road and Ortega Highway near I-5 have been unaffected. nearly 1,000 horses live in the area.

Of the 11 horses with the virus, only one has displayed neurological symptoms, but it has started to improve, state officials said.

The Rancho Sierra Vista stable is under quarantine and will remain so for three more weeks, officials said.

Dr. Kent Fowler, animal-health branch chief at the Food and Agriculture Department, talked to horse owners and veterinarians at Stone Field Park on last week. About 100 people attended. Fowler talked about the illness and the precautions being taken.

“The disease typically has low mortality and can range from 0 to 30 percent,” he said after a news conference. “The symptoms can progress to a situation where the horse could die. We generally know how a horse will progress in a time frame of two weeks.”

Fowler said the disease must be reported to his agency within 48 hours. the virus is contagious, which is why the agency put the quarantine in place, he added.

Horses transmit the disease by coughing or sneezing on another horse. Horse caregivers could spread it by touching a diseased horse’s face and then touching another horse. Caretakers and owners of horses at Rancho Sierra Vista have been asked to take precautions such as wearing disposable boots and using foot baths when they go from barn to barn. There is no specific protocol for treatment, but horses, depending on their symptoms, are given IV fluids, anti-viral drugs and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Though the disease is not transmitted over long distances by air, nearby stable managers said they are concerned about the outbreak.

David Provence, who manages the Sycamore Trails equestrian center, said his concern is that before the virus was positively identified, horses had traveled among the stables.

“It’s concerning because it’s potentially fatal,” he said. “It’s as infectious as a cold. most horses have immunity to this because it’s similar to one they are regularly vaccinated for. but if a horse is under physical stress or old, it could catch it.”

Contact the writer: 949-454-7307 or

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Both chicken pox and shingles are highly transmittable viral issues that are characterized by agonizing skin rash. A result of the herpes virus, the earliest symptoms of both conditions consist of headache, fever, a standard feeling of malaise, sore throat and bloating of the face.Treatment for both conditions is available in the form of Acyclovir tablets.What’s Acyclovir?Acyclovir is part of a family of drugs known as guanosine analogue antiviral drugs. its probably the most widely used cures for the treatment of shingles and chickenpox. The creation of this medication heralded a new era in antiviral therapy. its selective action and its low levels of toxicity with respect to cells, has made it the highly recommended treatment option for shingles and chicken pox.How does Acyclovir Work?to understand the working of Acyclovir, it’s a good idea to be aware of how the herpes viruses works in the body. The virus functions in the body by multiplying through duplication. When the virus cells begin multiplying, it spreads through the body. The consumption of Acyclovir helps arrest the reproduction of the virus, limiting its spread to a selected part of your body. Basically, it inhibits the virus from growing all over your body.When you take in Acyclovir, it inhibits the operation of those enzymes that the herpes virus uses for duplication. which means that the virus can no longer multiply. as the spread of virus stops, so does the spread of its signs and symptoms. This also helps reduce the seriousness of the symptoms.Treatment with AcyclovirAciclovir is a prescription drug available in dosages of 200mg, 400mg and 800mg. The physician will take cognizance of your current consumption of medications and existing health condition(s) before suggesting the suitable dosage. Typically, the medication is approved at the first indication of an infection. This medication has to be taken orally with a glass of water and may be taken with or without food. Quite a few people, prescribed Acyclovir have seen that there’s a decrease in the side effects if it’s consumed with food; especially negative effects like stomach upset, diarrhoea and nausea. Chicken pox and shingles might be effectively cured with Valtrex also.Side Effects of Acyclovir

The use of Acyclovir tablets may cause certain side effects. The character of the side effects and their severity could be different in different people. People taking this medication occasionally suffer from digestive side effects like vomiting, nausea and diarrhoea. Some other side effects include headache, memory loss, fatigue, pain in the legs, sore throat, and bloating of the hands and feet. if you experience a side effect that becomes disturbing, it is necessary that you seek immediate medical help.The effect of Acyclovir on unborn babies hasn’t yet been fully understood clearly. so, pregnant ladies are suggested not to take this medication. also, you may experience a significant improvement in your ailment before you complete the proposed amount. but, it’s important that you complete the recommended dosage and not leave it half way. if you do, it might lead to some complications later on.

Article Source: articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/treating-chicken-pox-using-acyclovir-5526474.html

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Q whenever certain people are on TV, our cat, Lilly, runs to the TV and begins to scratch at the set. This happens when certain music comes on. recently, when Justin Bieber appeared on TV, the cat went crazy. Lilly doesn’t have her claws anymore, so there’s no damage to the TV, but what is this scratching all about?

- S.U., Pasadena, Calif.

A Cats often express their excitement with a good scratch. even cats without claws go through the same motions. I can’t explain why certain music is more exciting to your cat, who apparently enjoys Bieber.

Q I’m concerned that the vaccine to protect cats against rhinotracheitis and the calici virus causes the (viral infections) and helps destroy a cat’s immune system. I know two cats whose deaths directly resulted from the feline leukemia vaccine. can you please tell people not to use these vaccines?

- A.A., Cyberspace

A I’m afraid I can’t help because you’re wrong. Feline herpes virus (rhinotracheitis) is the most common cause of upper respiratory disease in cats. Calici virus often causes inflammation in the mouth, oral ulcers and/or limping and can be very serious. both infections occur most often in kittens, cats in stressed or overcrowded environments like animal shelters and those in multicat households.

Once infected, there may be chronic flare-ups throughout a cat’s life.

Feline veterinarian Dr. Susan Little, of Ottawa, Canada, says, “The vaccine for the feline herpes virus and for the calici virus were never intended to prevent infection. Vaccination does in some cases prevent symptoms, or at least lessens their severity, so cats don’t die.”

As for your claim about the feline leukemia vaccine, it’s simply not true, says Little, a past president of the Winn Feline Foundation. Most veterinarians do agree that not all cats should be vaccinated for feline leukemia. This has nothing to do with the vaccines but instead is about the lifestyle of individual cats. For example, indoor-only cats are unlikely to be exposed to the disease and may not require the vaccine.

Certainly, here and there cats do have reactions to vaccines; the most feared of all may be vaccine-associated feline sarcoma at the vaccination site. Some researchers have suggested this aggressive cancer may be associated with some feline leukemia vaccines (those with an adjuvant), but it’s not proven and is very rare. if you’re concerned, ask about the non-adjuvanted vaccine for feline leukemia.

Q I take my dog to visit a hospice once a week. I wish I could describe what a difference this has made for the patients. For our border collie, Lucy, the emotional outlet and work has been wonderful. I was sure I’d be sad working in a hospice, but I haven’t felt that way at all. instead, I have a tremendous feeling of satisfaction. I’m writing in hopes you can convey how programs like this make a difference.

- S.C., Marietta, Ga.

A For 10 years, my wife and I were privileged to take our Lucy to visit patients at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago as a certified animal-assisted therapy dog. Therapy dogs are sometimes able to wiggle their way into hearts and minds where medical science cannot.

Science has repeatedly documented what such dogs can do. I talked with my friend David Frei, who participates in animal-assisted therapy with his dog through a program he founded called Angel on a Leash.

No one knows how these dogs are able to achieve the miracles they do. Frei and I agree that while they are patients in hospitals, rehab facilities and hospices, people are living like our dogs live – in the moment. This creates a special connection. And, of course, dogs don’t care how patients look or their diagnoses; they love everyone unconditionally.

After our beloved Lucy passed away in 2011, we set up a fund in her honor with the American Humane Association to support the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards for animal-assisted therapy: bit.ly/ieF5K9.

Write to Steve Dale at .

I’m starting to have feelings for this guy friend I’ve been fooling around with, but I’m worried he isn’t feeling the same way. He’s stopped short of having full-blown intercourse with me, which I find odd, although I don’t want to have sex yet because I have genital herpes and I’m not ready to tell him. (I take an antiviral drug for this daily, and I’d have him wear protection during intercourse.) Do you think he knows I have herpes? Maybe he just isn’t interested in me romantically and doesn’t want me getting too attached.

–Puzzled

When you start to care about somebody, it’s nice to give him little romantic gifts — flowers, a gourmet cupcake, a sweet card, weeping genital sores.

Surely you’d tell the guy pronto if you had a cold: “Hey, don’t get too close, because you could catch this and have an unpleasant few days.” but colds go away. Herpes is forever. Yeah, I know, so are diamonds. but, unlike a mammoth rock on a girl’s finger, a big genital pustule isn’t anything you want to be showing off to the crew at the office: “Look at it gleam under the fluorescents!” 

Genital herpes hasn’t always been such a big stigmatized deal — to the point where it’s led to the tanking of countless potential relationships. until the late ‘70s, it was seen as “cold sores down there” and often not even worthy of a visit to the doctor. except in rare cases, the physical symptoms are relatively minor. at the first outbreak, especially, it feels a bit like the flu, with fever, headache and muscle aches. There’s also tingling and itching, and there can be pain, burning during urination (and don’t forget the yucky sores!).

So, what led to all the stigma? the sexual revolution, for starters. in the mid-‘70s, with lots of people having lots of sex, genital herpes spread (as probably did the common cold). in 1979, the CDC, seeing the herpes stats rising, got a little hysterical and announced an “epidemic” (of cold sores!), and the media ran with it.

In 1980, Time magazine declared herpes “the New Sexual Leprosy,” and in 1982, the Miami Herald called it a “cruel disease.” “Cruel disease”? Multiple sclerosis is a cruel disease. but, an infection that gives you the itchies and makes you walk funny for a few days? as herpes simplex expert Dr. Adrian Mindel told the Independent in 1987, “for the majority of people herpes is … nothing more than an occasional nuisance.”

The thing is, if you’re having an outbreak of your “occasional nuisance” and your naked parts are rubbing against somebody else’s naked parts, you could infect him. the risk of transmission may be reduced by daily antiviral treatment and condom use — provided there are no contagious areas outside the condom zone. but, you can be in a contagious stage and not know it.

 Of the approximately 1 in 6 U.S. adults ages 14 to 48 who have genital herpes, 80 percent don’t show visible symptoms, says herpes researcher Dr. Anna Wald. Research by Wald and her colleagues found that even when herpes carriers showed no symptoms, they were contagious 10 percent of the time. Of course, that’s on average. Wald explained to me that there’s a range: “Some people may be contagious 1 percent of the time, and others 30 percent, but we don’t have a good way to predict who is who.”

Putting this guy at risk for herpes without giving him any choice in the matter was not only unfair but pretty dumb. for many people, the betrayal is the biggest problem. if you tell somebody before he fools around with you and maybe pull a fact sheet off the Internet to allay his fears, he’ll be less likely to ditch you, and he won’t have the rage he would at being unwittingly exposed.

To launch the conversation, maybe say something like “ever gotten a cold sore? I get them sometimes…but not on my lip!” and then, as DatingWithHerpes.org advises, don’t say “I have herpes,” which makes you sound like you’re having an outbreak right then. Instead, say “I carry the virus for herpes” and explain how often you have outbreaks…which should make it sound more like a manageable annoyance than the guy’s ticket to a lifetime of Crusty Pustules Anonymous meetings.

NOTE: There are press reports, tracing back to the respected Herpes Viruses Association of the U.K., that drug company Burroughs Wellcome caused the initial stigmatization of people with herpes by marketing the stigma to sell its drug. the association could provide me no evidence supporting its accusation, nor could I find any in 51 years of newspaper and journal articles (from 1960 to 2011). I’m very much for going after drug companies for malfeasance, but not in the absence of evidence they’ve committed any.

Related:

Q: We just got a new kitten and the rescue gave it some vaccines but it still needs more. What vaccines do cats need and what are they for? are the diseases they protect against really contagious? It gets so confusing so fast!

a: there are three main vaccines that your kitten will need: FVRCP, FelV and rabies.