The Board has granted service connection for herpes zoster, finding that the veteran's recent outbreak was likely due to a pre-existing infection. Service connection for arthritis of the lumbar spine is denied.
The deciding factor: Service connection for herpes zoster is established as it resolved during service and reoccurred later, likely due to an underlying pre-service condition.
- Claimed conditions
- arthritis of the lumbar spine, herpes zoster
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 18, 2006
- Citation
- 0611027
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,776 · Granted: 24% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0611027.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for PTSD, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, insomnia, unspecified psychosis, arthritis of the lumbar spine, degenerative disc disease, multilevel spinal stenosis, and arthritis of the cervical spine and degenerative disc disease. The diagnoses are linked to in-service physical assaults.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for increased evaluations and service connection have been dismissed due to his withdrawal of the appeals.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss, left upper extremity peripheral neuropathy, and sleep apnea. The effective date for the grant of service connection for herpes zoster was not earlier than March 22, 2020. An initial compensable rating for herpes zoster was also denied. However, an initial 10 percent rating for allergic rhinitis, a 30 percent rating for chronic sinusitis, and a 70 percent rating for unspecified anxiety disorder were granted.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for a low back disability and a cervical spine disability, finding that the evidence was in equipoise regarding their incurrence during active duty.
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