Hi Solo. Sorry you got it. Here is the word from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website:

"Shingles cannot be passed from one person to another. However, the virus that causes shingles, the varicella zoster virus, can be spread from a person with active shingles to a person who has never had chickenpox. In such cases, the person exposed to the virus might develop chickenpox, but they would not develop shingles. The virus is spread through direct contact with fluid from the rash blisters, not through sneezing, coughing or casual contact.

A person with shingles can spread the virus when the rash is in the blister-phase. A person is not infectious before blisters appear. Once the rash has developed crusts, the person is no longer contagious.

Shingles is less contagious than chickenpox and the risk of a person with shingles spreading the virus is low if the rash is covered."

http://www.cdc.gov/shingles/about/transmission.html

I'm not sure how far to believe this, "low" is not "zero," and in my opinion, it's best to avoid contact with any virus-related rash.

Thanks for the info, johnnycake. Surprised to see you here. Have you had this condition? The information was helpful and is pretty much what my doctor had told me but that raises one more big question....how the hell did I get it? I haven't been around anyone with shingles.

I have not gotten a good answer on why I had an outbreak, the party line answer of stress is not sitting well with me, I was on vacation and not feeling stressed out before that either.

I saw your question about not understanding how you got shingles and not having been around anyone who had it. You don't catch shingles from another person. Sometime in your life you had chicken pox and then the virus goes dormant in your body until something like stress, a low immune system, poor nutrition, causes the virus to become active, to wake up actually, but instead of chicken pox, it's shingles.

I really don't think the medical community is 100% sure what will cause the virus to become active, but the things I mentioned seem to be present in those who have a shingles outbreak. Not all of them in one person, but generally one of the stressors can be found.

You can't 'give' shingles to others, however, if you are around someone who hasn't had chicken pox and they come in contact with the fluid from the blisters, they can get chicken pox.

The Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) is present in the fluid filled Shingles blisters. If a person who has never had Chickenpox or the Chickenpox vaccine is exposed to that fluid, they could develop a case of Chickenpox. If so, after the Chickenpox heals, the virus would then lay dormant along a nerve root, and could reactivate at some time in that person's future. The reactivation would be a Shingles attack.

This and all other aspects of this miserable condition are covered in my ebook, Understanding Shingles.

http://theunderstandingseries.com/book-review/understanding-shingles/