chickenpox....

[donnaanna]

a office coleague who normally seast next to me called today to report she has been diagnosed with chickenpox. she is 54 and had chickenpox in the past, also her 2 children had it so she shoudl be immune.
she has been coughing badly for last two weeks so I have been breathing in her viruses...
I should be immune as I had it in the past but I am worried if it is possible to carry virus and pass it on even if I don't display any symptoms?
I have party next weekend for 50 people, some of them babies and children and my father in law who takes steroids and chemo for his leukemia.
Can I pass the virus on to them?

[Sqad]

You may or may not be immune to the chicken pox virus and you MAY have contacted it from your office colleague.

// some of them babies and children and my father in law who takes steroids and chemo for his leukemia.
Can I pass the virus on to them?//

yes, you could pass it onto the babies, which would be no big deal, but the FIL with steroid and chemo will be at risk.

[donnaanna]

Hi sqad, thanks for your reply.
I should be immune as I had my chickepox as a child and never contracted it again, even though I have been exposed many times to variuos children in family having it.
Can I infect others even if I am not ill myself? just carry the virus and pass it on?

[Sqad]

donna....yes you can......but that shouldn't worry anybody except of course your father-in-law.

[donnaanna]

hi squad, thank you for claryfying, i was worried this would be the answer...
it means we have to cancel the party as it is shared - both me and FIL have birthdays on the same date and always celebrate toghether.

[anneasquith]

and pregnant women ?

[ojread2]

".yes you can......but that shouldn't worry anybody except of course your father-in-law."............... and anyone in early or late pregnancy

[donnaanna]

luckily no pregnant ladies were invited :-)
I just soke to MIL and we decided to postpone the party by 3 weeks, that shoudl be enough i think.

[dance2trance]

I think you have got things a bit ass about face. Yr co-worker has 'shingles' she has NOT have 'Chicken Pox'. Shingles is harmless. You have the urban myth legend of 'Measles Causes Sterility' rattling around in the ether and in a panic have blended all things into one. Ask yr GP or professional health worker or look it up on the NHS site. But NEVER take medical advice from this site.

[donnaanna]

dance2trance, hmmm, i did check nhs website and spoke to the doctor once I decided that i should not trust this website and i was told that:
1. she could have chicken pox (new infection) and so coul I as 13% population do not develop imunity after first infection or the strains of virus has mutated enough for their old anytbodies not to work
2. even if it is shingles she can still infect someone and give them chickenpox as it is the same virus and therefore for her it may be harmles but not for my father in law it could be deadly
3. infection is only possible by direct face to face contact with person infected or by touching very recently infected things (toy a child sneezed on 5 min previously) and somebody who was exposed but is NOT ILL cannot pass the virus.
Given all that we were told by my FIL GP that even though the risk is minimal it is better not to risk potential infection as it could cause sever complications for him.
so i am not sure where you get your info from?

[hc4361]

dance2trance, you really have no idea what you are talking about.

[Adniluk]

dance2trance
Chickenpox can be caught twice. Most people who have have had chickenpox develop shingles, BUT chickenpox can be caught again on quite rare, but not unknown, occasions.
Get your facts right.

[emmie]

can i ask as an aside, if you get shingles, does it always show as a rash?

[anneasquith]

^^^ yes in most cases, and painfull

[Eve]

I had to look into this recently as I was due to go to my brother and SIL's for Christmas Day and my baby nephew came down with a bad case of chickenpox.

Thank goodness I'd come off immunosuppressants again just before that as they had made me ill (again) and now off them until after an operation I'm waiting for. I was on quite a low dose too as I have to keep coming off them (with them making me ill) so never get to build up to a higher dose when even then is comparatively small to what I imagine your father in law will be on.

I'd been told that chickenpox is quite dangerous to be exposed to if your immune system is compromised so spoke to my GP who said that I should wait until he wasn't infectious anymore, at least 3/4 days after the last of the blisters had closed over.

That said though, of course, I don't have anywhere near as serious an underlying illness or as compromised an immune system as your father-in-law so a lot more potentially serious a risk for him.

I had chickenpox as a child and I was told you can't catch shingles from chickenpox (she said you have to have had chickenpox to have shingles as the virus lies dormant in your system until being triggered by something like stress) but you can get chickenpox more than once.

Luckily family Christmas went ahead ok (first with my nephew). I hope you all have a great party despite the delay but better to be safe than sorry.

Does anyone know why this particular virus is flagged up particularly for people with weaker/comprised immune systems?

[boxtops]

Surely shingles is infectious/contagious too - I've always understood that, it's the same virus?

[Eve]

Don't you have to be in contact with the fluid stuff itself in shingles, the stuff in the blisters? I checked when someone I work closely with at work was initially thought she had it (looked really nasty but turned out to be some sort of fungal infection in the end). I think you can get chickenpox from it but not shingles itself?

[donnaanna]

from what i can find out it looks like shingles is secondary condition - you must have chickenpox first, it stays in your system and can come back as shingles. if it does it is contagious but it can only be passed on throuigh the liquid from the spots (chickenpox can be passed on by mucus from coughing and sneezing as well as liquid from the spots). If you exposed to someone with shingles you can get chickenpox. If you exposed to someone with chickenpox you can get chickenpox. You cannot get shingles from someone as shingles is caused by chickenpox virus already in your system.