Shingles

Shingles is an infection that causes a painful rash. Get advice from a pharmacist or NHS 111 as soon as possible if you think you have it.

Symptoms of shingles

The first signs of shingles can be:

• a tingling or painful feeling in an area of skin
• a headache or feeling generally unwell

A rash will usually appear a few days later. In rare cases shingles can cause pain without a rash.

Usually you get the shingles rash on your chest and tummy, but it can appear anywhere on your body including on your face, eyes and genitals.

The rash appears as blotches on your skin, on 1 side of your body only. A rash on both the left and right of your body is unlikely to be shingles”

Shingles vaccine

A shingles vaccine is available on the NHS for:

• people who turned 65 on or after 1 September 2023
• people aged 70 to 79 who have not yet been vaccinated
• people aged 18 and over with a severely weakened immune system

The vaccine helps reduce your risk of getting shingles.

If you get shingles after being vaccinated, the symptoms can be much milder.

You can get shingles more than once, so it’s important to get vaccinated even if you’ve had shingles before.

Ask your GP surgery if you can get the vaccine on the NHS.

• More information about Shingles can be found on the NHS website
• Shingles: guidance and vaccination programme

The Green Book has the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures, for vaccine preventable infectious diseases in the UK:

The Chapter on Shingles can be found on the GOV.UK website (PDF)