Early symptoms of herpes zoster

Update Date: 2025-08-31 Source: Network

summary

Herpes zoster is an acute infectious skin disease caused by varicella zoster virus. Chickenpox occurs in children who are not immune to the virus. Some patients become infected with the virus without symptoms. Because the virus is neurophilic, it can lurk in the neurons of the dorsal root ganglion of the spinal cord for a long time after infection. When the resistance is low, or when the virus is tired, infected or cold, it can grow and reproduce again, and move to the skin along the nerve fibers, causing strong inflammation of the invaded nerve and skin. Early symptoms of herpes zoster? Let's talk about it

Early symptoms of herpes zoster

Before eruption, there may be mild fatigue, low fever, anorexia and other systemic symptoms. The skin of the affected area may feel burning or neuralgia consciously, and there may be obvious pain sensitivity when touching it. It lasts for 1-3 days, and the rash may occur without prodromal symptoms.

The most common sites were intercostal nerve, cervical nerve, trigeminal nerve and lumbosacral nerve. The affected area often first appeared tidal erythema, and soon appeared millet to soybean sized papules, which distributed in clusters but did not fuse. Then it quickly turned into blisters. The blister wall was tense and shiny, the blister fluid was clear, and the surrounding was red halo. The skin between the blister clusters was normal; The lesions are arranged in a band along a certain peripheral nerve, mostly on one side of the body, and generally do not exceed the median line.

Neuralgia is one of the characteristics of the disease, which can appear before the onset or accompanied by skin lesions. The course of the disease is generally 2-3 weeks. The blister dries up, scabs and falls off, leaving temporary pale erythema or pigmentation.

matters needing attention

Direct and effective sensory nerve block should be considered when severe pain is difficult to control. The location of the block depends on the extent of the lesion and the response to treatment. The general principle should be from shallow to deep, from simple to complex, from peripheral to nerve stem and nerve root.