Early symptoms of herpes simplex

Herpes zoster, also known as shingles, is a relatively common disease, especially in young children. In the early stages of shingles, there will be symptoms such as low fever, pain, neuralgia, and the appearance of blisters the size of mung beans or rice grains. If the above symptoms occur, the patient must go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time, because shingles is a highly contagious disease. If it is not cured in time, it may affect the health of others!

What are the early symptoms of shingles?

1. The onset of the disease is sudden. Before the rash appears, there may be mild systemic symptoms such as low fever, fatigue, and general discomfort, as well as tingling or burning pain in the affected skin. When the pain is severe, it may be misdiagnosed as acute abdomen and other diseases.

2. The rash is characterized by groups of shiny blisters the size of mung beans to rice grains, with a red base, distributed unilaterally along the peripheral nerves and arranged in a band-like shape. The skin between each group of blisters is normal. The blisters will burst in about 1 or 2 weeks, form scabs or be absorbed and dry, and pigmentation will remain after the scabs fall off. In severe cases, the disease may spread throughout the body, which is called generalized herpes zoster.

3. The most common sites are the chest (intercostal nerve distribution area) and forehead (trigeminal nerve distribution area), followed by the neck, abdomen, limbs, etc.

4. Neuralgia is paroxysmal, tingling, burning or hyperesthesia. The degree of pain increases with age. Elderly patients experience severe pain, which is even unbearable.

How to check the early symptoms of shingles?

1. Cytological diagnosis of genital herpes: Take cells from the base of the lesion for smear and stain with Wright-Giemsa or Papanicolaou stain. Finding large multinucleated giant cells and eosinophilic inclusion bodies in the nuclei of multinucleated giant cells can help with diagnosis.

2. Cytological examination of herpes virus for genital herpes: Take cells for smear, add fluorescently labeled HSV-1 and HSV-2 monoclonal antibodies, and find apple green fluorescent virus inclusion bodies in multinucleated giant cells under a fluorescence microscope to make a diagnosis of genital herpes. It is also a method for examining shingles.

3. Herpes virus tissue culture examination of genital herpes: Use human embryonic fibroblasts, human amniotic cells, kidney cells, etc. to isolate and culture the virus, and use immunofluorescence to identify it. It can be confirmed, but the operation is complicated and expensive. It has diagnostic value but is not easy to popularize.

4. Electron microscopic examination of genital herpes: the examination method for herpes zoster also includes serological diagnosis of herpes virus. Examination of genital herpes: detection of genital herpes-specific antibodies.

How to treat herpes simplex?

A notable feature of herpes simplex is that it easily affects the nerves, so special attention must be paid during treatment. In addition to treating the skin lesions, attention must also be paid to treating the nerve pain of herpes simplex to avoid the sequelae of nerve pain caused by improper treatment. If patients with acute herpes zoster still have persistent, paroxysmal pain in the affected skin area after the herpes lesions have subsided, it can be called post-herpetic neuralgia. The pain usually lasts for more than 3 months and requires timely treatment.

There are many methods for treating post-herpetic neuralgia, but the most common method is drug treatment. Currently, there are several new drugs such as gabapentin, pregabalin, and capsaicin patch that are effective in treating post-herpetic neuralgia. However, the specific choice of drug depends on the patient's physical condition.