With an outbreak of chicken pox in the schools in town being all the talk among parents in Seychelles at the moment, the varicella zoster virus (VZV) sounded like perfect blog fodder. VZV is the miserable little creep that causes chicken pox, then can rear its ugly head years later and bring about a very painful case of herpes zoster, otherwise known as shingles.

Although as older parents we could experience the double whammy of having both versions crop up at home at the same time, if we do come down in shingles we can't blame our kids for dragging it home from school. Nope, it's the chicken pox we had as children that cause the painful blisters folks in Italy call Saint Anthony's fire.

More than one million cases of shingles are diagnosed in the US every year, and older people are most often the unlucky sufferers. In fact, the older you get, the more likely you'll have shingles, and by age eighty-five the odds are fully 50/50.

Much more than just the painful little blisters that break out, shingles is more an issue of nerves than skin. While the blisters, most often appearing only on one side of the face or body, heal in two to four weeks, the long-term nerve pain that can follow, postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), may last for years ... pain so severe that the touch of even the softest fabric can be unendurably painful.

The Older Woman's League has joined an effort called, "Spotlight on Shingles: Know what you can do" in hopes of educating older adults about this illness and it's possible complications. You can find a list of risks and symptoms on the sites.

It's important to see your doctor as soon as possible, as the course of antiviral drugs that will help need to be taken within 2 to 3 days of the appearance of the rash.

Keep track of your kids' chicken pox and such in a lifebook so they'll be able to look back to see ahead. There may come a day when knowing for certain if they've had chicken pox, or something else, could make a big difference, and there's no guarentee that someone will be there to tell them all about it.

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