Zona is the common name for shingles (herpes zoster) in many languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. It’s a painful viral condition caused by the same virus behind chickenpox. After you recover from chickenpox, the virus doesn’t leave your body. It goes dormant in nerve cells near your spine and skull, and it can reactivate years or decades later as zona, producing a distinctive band of blisters along a single nerve path.
The word “zona” also appears in anatomy and biology (more on that below), but the overwhelming majority of people searching this term are looking for information about shingles.
What Causes Zona (Shingles)
The varicella-zoster virus causes both chickenpox and shingles. When you first catch it, usually in childhood, it causes chickenpox. Once the rash clears, the virus retreats into clusters of nerve cells called ganglia, where it can remain inactive for your entire life. In some people, though, the virus wakes back up. When it does, it travels along a nerve fiber to the skin and triggers the painful rash known as zona.
What reactivates the virus isn’t always clear, but a weakened immune system is the biggest factor. Aging naturally reduces immune surveillance, which is why shingles becomes far more common after age 50. Stress, illness, certain medications that suppress the immune system, and conditions like HIV can also trigger reactivation.
How the Rash Develops
Zona typically unfolds in a predictable pattern. Several days before any visible rash, you may feel pain, tingling, itching, or burning in a specific area of skin. This early warning phase, called the prodrome, can be confusing because there’s nothing to see yet. Some people mistake it for a pulled muscle or a skin irritation.
The rash itself then appears as a cluster of fluid-filled blisters, almost always on just one side of the body. It follows the path of a single nerve, which is why it forms a stripe or band pattern rather than spreading randomly. The most common location is the torso, wrapping around one side of the ribcage. The face is the second most common site. The rash rarely crosses the body’s midline.
Blisters typically scab over within 7 to 10 days and clear up within 2 to 4 weeks. During the blister phase, the rash can be intensely painful. Many people describe the pain as burning, stabbing, or electric.
Can You Spread Zona to Others?
You cannot give someone else shingles directly. However, the fluid inside the blisters contains active virus. If someone who has never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine touches the fluid or breathes in virus particles from open blisters, they can develop chickenpox (not shingles). Up to 90% of non-immune people exposed to the virus will become infected.
Once all your blisters have crusted over, you’re no longer contagious. Until then, it’s wise to keep the rash covered and avoid close contact with pregnant women, newborns, and anyone with a weakened immune system.
Postherpetic Neuralgia: The Main Complication
For most people, the pain fades as the rash heals. But some develop postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a condition where burning or stabbing pain continues in the same area for months or even years after the rash is gone. PHN is the most common long-term complication of shingles.
About 13% of shingles patients aged 50 and older develop PHN. Age is the strongest risk factor: around 60% of people who get shingles at age 60 experience some degree of postherpetic neuralgia, and that figure rises to roughly 75% at age 70. The good news is that the pain does diminish over time for most people. At one month after shingles onset, 9 to 14% of patients have PHN. By three months, that drops to about 5%, and at one year, only around 3% still have severe pain.
Treatment
Antiviral medications are the primary treatment. Three drugs are commonly prescribed, and they work by slowing the virus’s ability to replicate. Starting antiviral treatment within 72 hours of the rash appearing makes a meaningful difference in how severe the episode is and how quickly it resolves. After that window, the medications are less effective but may still be prescribed in certain cases.
Pain management is the other pillar of treatment. Over-the-counter pain relievers help with mild cases. More severe pain may require prescription options. For postherpetic neuralgia specifically, medications that calm overactive nerve signals are often used. Cool compresses and calamine lotion can also ease the discomfort of active blisters.
Vaccination
A two-dose vaccine called Shingrix is the most effective way to prevent zona. In adults aged 50 to 69 with healthy immune systems, it’s 97% effective at preventing shingles. In adults 70 and older, effectiveness is 91%. It also prevents postherpetic neuralgia: 91% effectiveness in people over 50, and 89% in those over 70.
The CDC recommends Shingrix for all adults 50 and older, with no upper age limit. Adults 19 and older with weakened immune systems are also candidates, though effectiveness in this group ranges from 68% to 91% depending on the underlying condition. Even if you’ve already had shingles, vaccination can help prevent future episodes.
Other Meanings of “Zona”
The term “zona” appears in two other biological contexts worth noting briefly.
Zona Pellucida
In reproductive biology, the zona pellucida is a protective layer surrounding a human egg cell. It plays a critical role in fertilization by allowing sperm to bind to the egg and then hardening afterward to prevent additional sperm from entering. This is one of the body’s key mechanisms for ensuring normal fertilization.
Zones of the Adrenal Cortex
The outer layer of your adrenal glands (small glands that sit on top of each kidney) is divided into three zones, each named with “zona.” The zona glomerulosa produces aldosterone, which regulates blood pressure and electrolyte balance. The zona fasciculata produces cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone. The zona reticularis produces weak male hormones called androgens. These three layers work together to manage everything from your stress response to your blood pressure to certain aspects of sexual development.