Herpes zoster, also named shingles or zona, is a highly contagious infection, which is caused by a varicella-zoster virus infection and usually affects adults. Most individuals get infected by the virus during their childhood with the virus causing then chickenpox.
Shingles is most common in older adults and people who have a weak immune system due to certain medicine, an injury, stress, or other conditions. Most people who get shingles do recover and will not get it again. However, it is possible to get shingles more than once.
We are talking about shingles, when the virus which causes chickenpox is activated again in the body. After a child gets better from chickenpox, the virus is dormant or sleeps in the roots of the nerves. This virus can sleep forever in some people but it can wake up in other people due to aging, stress, or another disease that weakens the immune system. In addition, some medicine can trigger the virus to be active again and this can cause a shingles rash. The mechanism is not clear but once triggered, the virus causes only shingles, not chickenpox. Symptoms of shingles occur in phases. Sensitivity to light or headache, flu without fever are common at the beginning. Later, the patient may feel pain, tingling, or itching in some areas and a few days later, a small spot of rash will appear there. The rash will turn into clusters of blisters filled with fluid before they crust over. The blisters heal generally within two to four weeks and they may leave scars. The symptoms vary as some people get just a mild rash while others do not get a rash at all. As the disease gets worse, the patient may feel weak or dizzy, or have changes in their vision with rash covering the whole face or many parts of the body. The patient can have also some changes in their ability to think.
There are medicines to treat shingles and these medicines include pain and antiviral medicines. An early treatment with antiviral medicine can help that the rash heals quickly and is less painful. The affected person can also made feel better quickly with a good home care. The skin sores should be kept clean and it is recommended to call a doctor if the pain bothers the affected persons. If suited the doctor can prescribe pain medicine.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
Name
Email address
Type your message here