Feature Health & Medicine

With its burning grip, shingles can do lasting damage

When varicella zoster reawakens, it wreaks a surprising amount of havoc in the body

shingles illustration

BURNED  When the virus responsible for chicken pox reemerges — sometimes decades after that first infection — it can raise the risk of stroke, dementia and long-term pain.

Brian Stauffer

By Aimee Cunningham

- More than 2 years ago

At age 37, Hope Hartman developed a painful, burning rash in her right ear, in the part “you would clean with a Q-tip,” the Denver resident says.