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Had Outbreak Of Shingles On Neck. Prescribed Allegra. Suggest

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Posted on Fri, 20 Dec 2013
Question: I have had a small outbreak of shingles on my right side(neck) 3 lesions, 1st time. I went to doc- was prescribed anti viral and almost finished prescription . However, I have a swollen LEFT eyelid, for the past week also. What could this be? Am taking Allegra for this- no help...... XXXXXXX
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Answered by Dr. Dadapeer K (1 hour later)
Brief Answer: It may be shingles of eye. Detailed Answer: Hello, Welcome to Health care Magic It seems from the history that you had an outbreak of shingles on right side of neck and taken treatment with antiviral drugs. And you also have swollen eye lid on the left side. Shingles is the common name for infection because of reactivation of Herpes zoster or varicella zoster virus. The virus causes chicken pox in children and following infection in childhood it remains latent in the nerves and gets reactivated when the immunity of the body is low or in old age. The disease characeristically affects one or more areas of skin supplied by a particular nerve and it wont cross the midline of the body. One of the commonest area to be affected is that of chest/neck, abdomen and eyes. The treatment is by antiviral drugs likely acyclovir and the treatment is required for 7-14 days depending on the severity. The antiviral drug is usually safe and it is unlikely to cause swelling of eyelids. Since you are having swelling of eye lids along with the shingles of the neck, herpes zoster or shingles involving the eyes has to be ruled out. The treatment of the eyelid involvement requires treatment for the eye along with the systemic treatment. Hence I advice you to consult your doctor or preferably eye doctor to rule out herpes zoster of the eye. The allegra drug you are taking is not helping you because it is an antiallergic drug and it has no role in treatment of the lid edema as lid edema is probably because of inflammation. Hence you need to take antiinflammatory drug and need consultation by eye doctor to rule out herpes zoster of the eye. Hope I have answered your query. I will be happy to answer if you have any other queries. Thank you
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Dadapeer K

Ophthalmologist

Practicing since :2003

Answered : 5709 Questions

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Had Outbreak Of Shingles On Neck. Prescribed Allegra. Suggest

Brief Answer: It may be shingles of eye. Detailed Answer: Hello, Welcome to Health care Magic It seems from the history that you had an outbreak of shingles on right side of neck and taken treatment with antiviral drugs. And you also have swollen eye lid on the left side. Shingles is the common name for infection because of reactivation of Herpes zoster or varicella zoster virus. The virus causes chicken pox in children and following infection in childhood it remains latent in the nerves and gets reactivated when the immunity of the body is low or in old age. The disease characeristically affects one or more areas of skin supplied by a particular nerve and it wont cross the midline of the body. One of the commonest area to be affected is that of chest/neck, abdomen and eyes. The treatment is by antiviral drugs likely acyclovir and the treatment is required for 7-14 days depending on the severity. The antiviral drug is usually safe and it is unlikely to cause swelling of eyelids. Since you are having swelling of eye lids along with the shingles of the neck, herpes zoster or shingles involving the eyes has to be ruled out. The treatment of the eyelid involvement requires treatment for the eye along with the systemic treatment. Hence I advice you to consult your doctor or preferably eye doctor to rule out herpes zoster of the eye. The allegra drug you are taking is not helping you because it is an antiallergic drug and it has no role in treatment of the lid edema as lid edema is probably because of inflammation. Hence you need to take antiinflammatory drug and need consultation by eye doctor to rule out herpes zoster of the eye. Hope I have answered your query. I will be happy to answer if you have any other queries. Thank you