OBJECTIVES: Understand the burden of disease, resources utilization, and health costs associated to herpes zoster in Mexican population. METHODS: Canadian MASTER protocol methodology was adapted  to perform this prospective cohort, multicenter trial in patients over 50 years who presented herpes zoster outbreaks or pain associated to zoster. Data was obtained through patient questionnaires at day 0, 14, 21, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180.  Burden of disease was evaluated as a function of pain duration and severity measured with the Zoster Brief Pain Inventory and the Initial Zoster Impact questionnaire. Quality of Life was evaluated before and after a zoster rash with the EuroQol-5D. A simple questionnaire describing the health resources utilization was used as well as  productivity and work questionnaires.  Descriptive statistics for all variables were used and for continuous variables, mean, median, standard deviation, rank and confidence intervals were calculated RESULTS: CONCLUSIONS: HZ is associated with impaired QoL, and significant health care resources use, supporting the need for early intervention and preventive strategies to reduce the HZ-associated disease burden to the health care system and the patient.