Shingle Virus Analysis

The shingle virus is not as contagious as the chicken pox but is composed of the same virus called the varicella zoster virus. In saying that, only people who have had the chicken pox are the only people that can get the shingles; this is because when a person gets chickenpox, the virus varicella hids and then develops into the zoster herpes virus. If you have shingles, however, you can spread the virus varicella and give another person the chickenpox. The shingles can be spread by the vesicular fluids that come out of the blisters caused by the herpes rash. In other words, “person-to-person transmission occurs via direct contact with vesicular fluids” (Madison LK 2015) if you have not had the chicken pox or have a weak immune system.
According
to Madison, “Lesions that have become dried and crusted are no longer infectious” (Madison LK 2015).a. In rare cases, however, when the zoster is disseminated, it can be transmitted even more easily than the chickenpox because aside from being contagious by contact it becomes airborne. In that case, the zoster becomes immune to acyclovir and cidofovir. “Brincidofovir (BCV) is a broad spectrum antiviral agent active in-vitro against double-stranded DNA viruses… We report successful BCV use in management of disseminated acyclovir- and cidofovir-resistant varicella zoster virus...” (Mullane, K. M., Nuss, C., Ridgeway, J., Prichard, M. N., Hartline, C. B., Theusch, J.& Larson, R. A 2016).