Shingles

[jw47]

If you have not had chicken pox but have been with someone who has shingles. Will it be chicken pox or shingles you are likely to get if you were infected

[Sqad]

In your situation , not having had chicken pox and come into contact with someone who has shingles, then if you are to become infected it will be with chicken pox and not shingles.

Shingles is not contagious.........you can't catch it.

[andy-hughes]

It's hard to say.

As I understand it, both are strains of the same virus, and viruses do not work on logic - if it's this, it won't be that systems.

Having had both, I would opt for chicken pox any day!

[andy-hughes]

I cross-posted with our expert, there you have your answer.

[Old_Geezer]

As I understand it shingles flares up rather than is caught, because it's already in you from when you had chicken pox. Chicken pox is caught.

[Peter Pedant]

Shingles is not contagious.........you can't catch it.
but contact with it in an non immune person will almost certainly result in chickenpox

“If a person has never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine, coming into contact with the fluid in shingles blisters can result in the person becoming infected with the virus. This would cause the person to get chickenpox, not shingles.

[jw47]

Thanks everyone for their answers. Apparently I never had chicken pox as a child or when my husband and daughters had it so will wait and see what happens

[Peter Pedant]

oh, you will know
adult chickenpox, prepare ( weak squeals and loud sighs) to be waited on hand and foot by family for three weeks

[Barquentine]

When you have chickenpox it leaves a dormant zoster in your trigeminal ganglia. This is what can flare up as shingles in the future if your immune system is compromised. If you have not had it you can catch chickenpox through exposure to shingles. You would need to have had direct contact with the fluid from singles rash blisters to be able to get chickenpox from the person with shingles. (Disclaimer: I have no medical training; ex-girlfriend was a medical student. A few medical terms stuck! Like when she asked to feel my external occipital protuberance!!)