Stress, some medications, and certain health conditions can reactivate the virus and trigger the symptoms of shingles. When shingles occurs more than once, doctors refer to it as recurrent shingles. Recurrent shingles is more common among people with a compromised immune system.

Can shingles come back repeatedly?

If you've had shingles once, you probably won't get it again. That doesn't mean it can't happen, it's just unlikely. Also called herpes zoster, shingles can come back a second or, rarely, a third time. But you can take steps to help prevent it, or ease it the next time around.

How many times can you get shingles in your lifetime?

Most people will only have one outbreak of shingles in their lifetime, but "in rare cases, it can reactivate a second time and cause another episode of shingles," says Amesh A. Adalja, MD, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.