Dear Dr. K: I’m a healthy, 65-year-old woman. I recently read that I should get the shingles vaccine. What is shingles? And should I get the vaccine?

Dear Reader: Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a case of chickenpox, the virus can lie dormant inside your nerves. Some people get infected with the virus without knowing it — that is, without getting chickenpox. It gets into their body, infects some nerves and remains inactive. People catch the virus from other people, usually during childhood.

Shingles occurs when the virus become reactivated. The infected nerves, and the skin the nerves go to, get inflamed. More serious damage to the nerves leads to long-lasting pain known as postherpetic neuralgia.

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