Shingles is immune for life. Shingles does not recur, and a person will only have one attack in their lifetime, but a very small number of people will have two or more. Like chickenpox, shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, and like chickenpox, shingles has lifelong immunity. That is, there is only one attack in a lifetime. Similar diseases include measles and leprosy. However, a very small number of people with particularly low resistance, such as patients on long-term immunosuppressive drugs, have the probability of getting it twice, but normal people only have one attack in their lifetime.