Belt of pain

RECENTLY, my mother experienced a severe pain in her left back. It was very, very painful. She described it as “like being burned”. The doctor diagnosed her to have shingles. What is shingles? 

Shingles is the common term for herpes zoster, a painful infection caused by the same virus which gives you chickenpox. The virus is called varicella zoster. The word shingles comes from a Latin root word “cingulum”, meaning belt or girdle.