Shingles: The Reawakening of Chickenpox

Many of us think of chickenpox as a childhood illness — a harmless rite of passage that fades into memory once the itchy blisters heal. However, what most people don't realize is that the virus behind chickenpox, the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), never really leaves the body. Instead, it lies dormant in the nervous system for years, only to reawaken later in life as a painful and potentially debilitating condition known as shingles.1