prescription - a drug that is available only with written instructions from a doctor or dentist to a pharmacist; he told the doctor that he had been taking his prescription regularly. ethical drug, prescription drug, prescription medicine.
Definition. Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a single stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or the right side of your torso. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus â the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. While it isn't a life-threatening condition, shingles can be very painful.
The shingles rash forms blisters that tend to scab over in 7 to 10 days and clear up in 3 to 5 weeks. Pain is usually the first sign of shingles, which can arise anywhere from 1 to 5 days before the rash develops, yet some people experience the shingles pain, but never develop the rash. The pain can be mild for some and intense for others. In some instances, the pain may even be mistaken for a symptom of a disease that affects the heart, lungs, or kidneys. Other symptoms of shingles can include the following: A red rash that begins a few days after pain occurs.