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.
When shingles first begins, early signs and symptoms may consist of burning, itching, or stinging of the skin. The skin may feel sensitive, and it may even cause pain as well, which will occur days prior to the presence and development of the rash. Other symptoms of shingles include headache, fever and chills, nausea, body aches, and swollen lymph glands. Shingles rash may begin small and appear similar to that of blisters.