The idea that you can "catch" shingles is one of the more common misconceptions I hear from patients who arrive worried they've got it.

Often, they've recently been near a child with chickenpox or someone else with shingles, and are understandably anxious they've picked it up.

As a GP, I encounter this misunderstanding all the time. In fact, a study from my own University of Bristol found that while most patients had heard of shingles, few actually understood what it is.

Shingles isn't something you catch from someone else. It's the reactivation of a virus already inside your body: the varicella-zoster virus , the same one that causes chickenpox .

After you recover from chickenpox, the virus doesn't leave; it hides in the nerve cells that supply sensation to your skin, lying d

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