What are shingles and does it run in the family or just if you've had chicken pox before? is it deadly or contagious?

The latter.: Shingles are the adult form of chicken pox - you had regular chicken pox as a kid, and later in life the virus is reactivated, but only along one nerve, on one side of the body. It is contagious only to someone who has never had chicken pox. It is deadly only in very old or very debilitated patients.

Shingles also known: As herpes zoster is a reactivation of the chickenpox virus often decades later after the chickenpox and occurs in about 30% of people during their life. It is rarely deadly even in immune compromised people and if transmitted to a susceptible person, it causes chickenpox not shingles. There is a vaccine which lowers the risk of developing it.