Shingles: “Unusual for the disease to appear at such a young age”

It’s incredibly painful, can cause hearing loss and even facial paralysis: it’s called Ramsay Hunt syndrome. No wonder singer Justin Bieber can’t hold his concerts. The pop star made his illness public last June and is now likely to suffer from it again. “It’s not unusual. But it does happen at that age,” says Wolfram Hötzenecker, head of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at the Kepler University Hospital in Linz.

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome

“Ramsay Hunt syndrome is shingles in the ear,” says the expert and goes on to explain: “We all carry the chickenpox virus, which hides in the nerve cells. If our defenses are weakened, it can be activated and comes forward, so to speak, which shows up in the painful blisters on the skin and is known as shingles,” says the dermatologist, who also heads the allergy center at the KUK.

Rare but very painful

If the virus now settles in the ear canal, this is called Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The name goes back to the American neurologist James Ramsay Hunt, who first described the condition around 1900. It also happens to us, but fortunately it is rare, says the primary. “And especially not in people as young and as severe as Justin Bieber is likely to be.”

One in three people in Austria will develop shingles in their lifetime. The characteristic symptom is a band-shaped red rash with blisters. It usually affects the chest, back, or face. Pain occurs in 80 percent of patients. The risk group includes above all older people and those who take immunosuppressive drugs.

Infusions with antiviral agents are administered as therapy for shingles. “Meanwhile there is also a vaccine that works very well,” says Wolfram Hötzenecker. “It is recommended for people over 50 and is available from your family doctor. You have to pay for the vaccine yourself. In the case of patients who already have pre-existing conditions, however, the health insurer often covers the costs.”