Common Skin Diseases in Adults: Actinic to Shingles

Developed a strange rash? It could be one of these four common adult skin diseases.

Herpes Zoster or Shingles

When in my twenties, I once developed a blistering rash on one of my shoulders. The intense pain accompanying this rash surprised me. It was not the sort of chafing discomfort many rashes cause, but a deep tingling nerve pain. The school health clinic diagnosed this condition as shingles.

Shingles is an often painful skin condition that results from long dormant varicella zoster, aka chicken pox, virus flaring up. The initial symptoms, in what is called the prodromal stage, may include fever, headache, chills, and numbness, pain or itching on one side of the body or face. Two to 5 days later, a rash will appear, generally on one side of the body. During this eruptive stage, clusters of blisters filled with clear liquid whose appearance mimics chicken pox, appear, often accompanied by redness and swelling.

The prescribed treatment? Back then I was advised to wait for it to go away, something that could take 3-5 weeks. Today antivirals are commonly prescribed.

Years later, I described this experience to one of my aunts. She related her own experience with shingles, a bizarre experience for sure. She was having severe abdominal pain and was hospitalized repeatedly without the cause being found. This condition seemed to be progressing and becoming debilitative. Doctors were looking at the possibility of cancer. Eventually, during one of her hospitalizations, doctors found large pus capsules inside her abdominal cavity- and they told her she had shingles. The doctors removed the infectious material. After she recovered, she had no further flare-ups. The pain was gone, and she was able to resume her normal activities.