I remember my father at age 70 falling prey to shingles, or herpes zoster, of the eye.
He was admitted to a hospital.
Herpes subsided slowly but other complications flared up and he kept fighting them to his death in the same hospital.
Never came back home again...
The most common shingles are those of the chest. The next are those of the eye.
Once an attack of chickenpox is there in life that gets treated, the virus goes dormant in the nerve center under the brain. If the immune system ever goes weak, the dormant virus goes active again and affects one side of the head involving the eye of that side too.
Symptoms are fever and chill along with pain in the head. The infected side develops a blistering rash covering the eye with a scab.
The eye can be affected in various ways listed below:
Conjunctivitis - Inflammation of conjunctiva
Scleritis, Episcleritis - Inflammation of sclera
Pseudodendrites - Surface ulcers of the cornea
Sterile Ulcers - of the cornea
Cloudy Immune Reaction - Allergy of the cornea to old virus proteins
Iritis - Inflammation of the colored part inside the eye
Glaucoma - Abnormally high pressure inside the eye
PHN - Pain, both acute and late, is more common in ocular than other forms of herpes
Now herpes is preventable by (1) routine vaccination of adults with Varivax™ and (2) vision therapy.
You can catch chickenpox from someone with herpes if you have not had chickenpox before. But you cannot get herpes itself from someone who has herpes.
Treatment of Shingles of the Eye:
Oral Antivirals - Famvir™, Valtrex™, or Zovirax™
Tricyclic Antidepressants - Desipramine or Nortriptyline
Ocular Ulcers, Inflammation, and Glaucoma - Antibiotics, Steroids, and Anti-glaucoma drops
Long Term Pain - TCAs, Neurontin™, and Slow-release Narcotics
Corneal Ulcers - Continuous-wear soft therapeutic contact lenses, antibiotic drops, artificial tears, and surgical narrowing of the lids
Chronic Inflammation and Glaucoma - Steroids and glaucoma drops
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