Shingles

January 2006     View PDF     En español
Reprinted from www.aidsmeds.com, US

How is shingles diagnosed?

The symptoms of shingles aren’t like those of many other infections. In turn, your doctor may be able to tell you what it is—and have you start treatment immediately—simply by looking at the rash. To be sure, or if your doctor has doubts, he or she can take a small sample of the rash and send it to a lab to look for the varicella-zoster virus.