chicken pox

[Oldoaktree]

my granddaughter has chicken pox , the older two have been vaccinated so hopefully won’t get it , how safe is it to see them ? Anyone done this , I’m on 3mg pred and had chicken pox as a child . Any advice welcome doc wasn’t very helpful .

[piglette]

I you have had chicken pox, the virus remains in the body but can redevelop as shingles. Chickenpox is infectious from 1 to 2 days before the rash starts. It stops being infectious when all the blisters have crusted over. This happens usually 5 to 6 days after the start of the rash.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I’d be steering clear for now… until you are sure the older ones haven’t got it and youngest is past infectious stage.

[Nextoneplease in reply to DorsetLady]

Me too - I’ve steered clear of my grandchildren with chickenpox, even though I wanted desperately to help my daughter with them. I felt it just wasn’t a risk I should take 😟x

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I'd keep away for now. She will be fine to see once all the blisters are crusted over which shouldn't be too long. The others are a bit of a conundrum since it is a long incubation and then they are infectious BEFORE you know they have it. If they have had both doses then that is 90% effective for NOT getting it. But there is a one in ten chance they can get it. And if it woke up YOUR CP virus and you got shingles - it can be awful.

[Oldoaktree in reply to PMRpro]

thank you all , looks like I’m waiting a while to see them .

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Oldoaktree]

Do you use video calling with them?

[Oldoaktree in reply to PMRpro]

Yes , will have to go down that route and send my gifts by post . Thank you

[Blearyeyed]

You should keep clear until they are better. Your immunity is lower and even if you have had chicken pox and had your Shingles vaccination you could still develop that , and it can be quite nasty depending on where you get it.I'm sure they will understand, just like when you needed to be careful about COVID.

Nobody really wants to be responsible for giving Grandma the lurgy , and you'd feel awful if you went and caught something and they felt guilty for making you ill.

Even if the older ones may not have it both them and even their parents can be carrying the virus around because of being in contact with the spotty one. Better safe than sorry.

You could always keep the sick one company with a chat or a game over Skype.

[AtopicGuy]

You don't give an approx. age in your profile. The human immune system weakens with age, which is why the chickenpox virus - within us since childhood - often breaks out as shingles later in life. Then there's the effect of taking steroids: every extra milligram on the dose weakens the immune system a little bit more, but 3 mg is a low dose.

The herpes varicella/zoster virus (VZV) has evolved to ensure that we oldies seed the outbreaks among the next generation. This often occurs when the older person who spreads the virus has no symptoms (asymptomatic shedding). Believe it or not, this was confirmed in 2008 by monitoring astronauts, who are super-fit, but still often end up shedding VZV virus towards the end of their (very stressful) spaceflight (see link below)!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/184...

"This is the first demonstration of shed of infectious VZV in the absence of disease."