• @athairmor
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    433 months ago

    He’s shingles.

    Yeah, the US had the disease pretty bad when it was young. And, it’s laid dormant in the nervous system for years. Some stress and poor health habits have allowed it to rise to the surface.

    It won’t ever go away entirely but better habits and self-care can keep it away indefinitely.

    • Trailblazing Braille Taser
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      fedilink
      113 months ago

      better habits and self-care can keep it away indefinitely.

      Caveat: you can’t blame people who get shingles for being sick.

      • @ripcord
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        13 months ago

        I mean, aren’t there vaccines now…?

          • @ripcord
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            23 months ago

            Ah, OK. I thought at least when innoculated as a child they were extremely (99.9+%) effective, and assumed it was similar as an adult.

            Looking it up, I see I was wrong. It’s pretty good, but WAY lower than I thought.

    • @InverseParallax
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      English
      63 months ago

      That’s it, with the caveat that people usually don’t die of shingles.

      • @athairmor
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        113 months ago

        Not usually. But, untreated shingles can lead to complications that can kill you (infections, stroke, meningitis, encephalitis, etc.).

        • @InverseParallax
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          33 months ago

          Yeah that’s what we got, post-civil war shingles.