CurePHN.org

  Part 1: Basics of PHN, theories on its etiopathogenesis.    Background:  Post herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a chronic pain syndrome that persists beyond 4-6 weeks or in some definitions up to 90 days after a shingles episode  [1] . Shingles or Herpes Zoster(HZ) is caused by varicella Zoster Virus reactivation (VZV). VZV is the same virus that causes chicken-pox. After primary infection ie. Chicken pox usually in childhood the VZV virus travels from the skin retrogradely (backwards) to the spinal ganglion. The virus lays dormant for decades until conditions are favorable for reactivation. Risk factors for reactivation seem to be waning of cell mediated immunity (t-cell) with age, immunosuppression, stress, UV, leukemia and cancer chemotherapy among others. As chickenpox rashes can appear all over the skin and even over the mucosal surfaces both sensory and autonomic ganglia can become infected and can subsequently reactivate. Usually HZ reactivation is confined t...

CurePHN.org  A patient led initiative to advocate for research into Post Herpetic Neuralgia and find better treatment options directed towards a cure for PHN.  Basic guiding principles for this endeavor: 1)  Patient centered -  Most PHN patients are well versed with their condition oftentimes better than their doctors! We need to use this resource and collective knowledge to find traditional or non-traditional approaches to treat this condition.   2) Create inter-disciplinary collaborations 3) Patient registry  4) Focus on immediate translational potential  5) New testing modalities for this invisible disease. We need objective findings that correlate with subjective symptoms. 6) Patient led advocacy to government and funding  institutions  so that funding goes where the most impact can be made.  Goals /To do:  1) Create a patient registry/ database with medical history, labs, treatment history, genomic data (if available) and ...