Successful Treatment of Post Herpetic Neuralgia and Herpes Zoster (Shingles) with Homeopathic Medicines

Herpes Zoster (HZ) is a viral disease resulting from the reactivation of Vericella Zoster virus (VZV) which remains latent in the nerve ganglion after primary infection. The commonest complication of HZ is Post herpetic neuralgia (PHN). When the body immunity goes down then the latent VZV become active in the sensory ganglia and causes inflammatory neural damage which subsequently leads to the incidence of PHN and acute neuralgic pain. Both the central and peripheral nervous system are affected. But the intensity of suffering of this disease is less in children than in adults. Incidence of PHN is common in elderly persons and is a serious problem to them with sleepless nights (insomnia) that may persists several years. There is no definite consensus on the definition of PHN but in the latest studies it is defined as pain persisting more than 3 months after the rash has healed. In this study we treated 100 HZ cases of different age and sex; with homeopathic medicines (Rhus tox & Thuja oc.) but no one developed PHN after one to six months of follow up and in all patients rashes or lesions were healed within 8-12 days, which may indicate the positive role of these medicines to prevent PHN. The results of this study were very encouraging indicating a definite role of homoeopathic medicine in HZ and PHN.