"The main reason for that is your immunity starts to decrease as you get older."

(THE CONVERSATION) – Over 90% of the world population has the virus that causes chickenpox lying dormant in their nervous system. Most people contract the varicella zoster virus, or VZV, when they get chickenpox as children. For around a third of these ...

Herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, is the result of reactivation of the latent varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which initially causes varicella (chickenpox). Following primary infection, VZV persists in a dormant state within the sensory ganglia ...

Shingles is no joke, and if you think it’s something you won’t have to worry about until your 50s or beyond, think again. While the illness is more common in older adults, cases among people in their 20s and 30s have been rising for at least a decade.

The increased incidence of herpes zoster (HZ, shingles) resulting from the reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus (VZV) in US adults began before the use of routine varicella vaccination of children. Rising HZ rates thus do not appear to result from ...