herpes zosterHerpes zoster is not associated with dementia risk, but rather is associated with a slightly reduced risk of dementia, a study has found.
Shingles occurs when the chickenpox virus from childhood remains dormant in specific ganglia and reactivates when the body is weakened or the immune system is weakened.
Herpes zoster is blisters and rashes that appear as streaks on one side of the body and are accompanied by severe pain. Although the rash and pain lasts 2 to 4 weeks and ends, in 10 to 20% of patients, nerve pain may continue following the rash has gone away.
A research team led by Professor Sigrun Schmidt of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark found 247,305 shingles patients over 40 years old (mean age 64 years, female 61%) and 1,235,690 general population of the same sex and age group, 20 According to HealthDay News on the 15th, this fact was revealed as a result of analyzing the records for the years (1997 to 2017).
The researchers compared the incidence of dementia in the two groups.
The herpes zoster group showed a 2% lower rate of dementia than the control group in the first year of the study and 7% lower therefollowing.
The incidence of dementia until the last year of the study was 9.7% in the herpes zoster group and 10.3% in the control group.
The team was surprised by this result, but the reason is not clear, but it may be because the diagnosis of shingles in undiagnosed dementia patients was missed.
Herpes zoster may increase the risk of dementia through neuroinflammation, cerebrovascular pathology, or direct nerve damage, but epidemiological evidence to support this is lacking.
However, the researchers interpreted the results of this study to show that shingles is not associated with an increased risk of dementia.
The results of this study were published in the latest issue of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.
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