Viola Davis Reveals She Was Diagnosed With Shingles

At first, Viola Davis thought she had the flu. When the raised, painful rash that began on her stomach reappeared on her back, she told her husband she suspected a spider bite. Or, because she’s an avid gym-goer, maybe her weight belt was irritating her skin. Eventually, the actor learned she had shingles. The excruciating nerve pain, and the rashes and the blisters that emerged on her back were typical signs of the viral illness. In hindsight, Davis wishes she’d taken the time to figure out what was going on with her body sooner. “I would go from project (to project). I would end on a Friday and be on a plane on a Saturday, and on Sunday I would just be running, wearing myself down,” Davis tells TODAY.com. To top it all off, she’d recently become a mother to daughter Genesis, born in July 2010. Davis was — and still — in her prime. She was exercising, eating well and felt fulfilled. Despite her lifestyle, however, Davis was the perfect candidate for shingles. The infection is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, also known for causing chickenpox, which Davis had as a child. Once you recover from chickenpox, the virus lies dormant in the body and can reactivate later in life, particularly in those over 50 years old, which Davis was. It’s also more common in those with weakened immune systems, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Once the virus is reactivated, it causes rashes, fever and chills, stomach upset, blisters, itching and tingling, and headaches, among other symptoms. There’s no cure, but patients can take antiviral medications to manage symptoms, over-the-counter painkillers and corticosteroids, according to the Cleveland Clinic. And to reduce your risk, you can get vaccinated, even if you’ve already had shingles, to reduce your likelihood of contracting it again. Davis knew “nothing, zero, zilch,” she says, about shingles until it happened to her, which made her want to speak out about it. “I felt like I was just going to be the mouthpiece for it because it was something that sort of made me wake up to the fact that I have to listen to my body,” she says. “That was for me one of those aha-moments in life.” Davis is partnering with GSK, a biopharma company, for its “Shingles, actually” campaign to encourage people over 50 to speak with doctors and pharmacists about their increased risk of shingles and how to prevent it. When Davis’ symptoms began, she recalls the spread of the “enormous” rash and ranked her pain a 9 out of 10. “I had never seen anything like that before. But you know, at the same time, I’d never been that age before,” she recalls, and getting older, she later discovered, would require a renewed perspective on health and wellness. Strength isn’t about ignoring the things that make you feel fragile, says Davis. “You are valuable and important enough to see that if something feels like it’s not right, then it’s not right, and do not see it as sort of a sign of weakness,” she adds.