Help Please! Chicken Pox and Shingles??

[ZoeZebra1]

My mum had shingles earlier this year and it was terrible. She is due to arrive this weekend and stay with us for Christmas. Chicken pox has been going around here and my 8 year old has some suspicious looking spots on her arms, I'm worried it may develop into chicken pox. Can chicken pox reactivate the shingles virus? I understand from what I have read that after having shingles you can get it again and be more prone in the first year after having it. My mum was so ill she won't want to risk getting it again, but if she doesn't come here she faces Christmas alone. I would t say anything until I know because I don't want to upset her unless I have to. Anyone have any facts about the link between these two illnesses?

You can catch chickenpox from exposure to someone with shingles, but you can't get shingles from exposure to chickenpox - as far as I know, shingles is a reactivation of the chickenpox virus that the person already has (even if they had chickenpox decades before).

What NannyR said.

Hope your mum enjoys Christmas with the damily :-)

So there is no way exposure to chicken pox can reactivate shingles? I know she is going to panic about it so I need to be factual and sure when I tell her.

Thank you!

Only someone who has had Chickenpox can get Shingles, as it is the chickenpox virus reactivated in nerve endings in the body.

If you've already had chickenpox, which your mum must have had at some point, as she couldn't have had Shingles otherwise, then you are not at risk by being with other people who have chickenpox.

Hope that makes sense!

Hi. The link, I think, is that Chicken pox and shingles are activated by the same virus.

However, as I understand it, you can't 'catch' shingles. You can develop it (usually as a result of a weakened immune system) if you already have the chicken pox virus dormant in your body.

However, someone who has not had chicken pox can catch the virus from someone who has shingles. It's true that you can get shingles more than once, but having had it once doesn't necessarily make you any more likely to get it again than someone who has never had it, iyswim.

So, provided that your mother is in good health now, there's no particular reason why she would have a relapse, and exposure to chicken pox SHOULD be irrelevant.

Have a look at the NHS website regarding shingles. It tells you there that you cannot catch shingles from someone with chicken pox. Get your mum to have a look at it if she is still worried.

My mum developed shingles after a fall (didn't break anything, not in hospital, no known contact with anyone with chickenpox, she was just a bit bruised and very shaken up.) She had had shingles decades earlier, and chickenpox as a child.

Especially in the elderly, shingles can be triggered by shocks to the system like my mum's fall, or immune system deficiencies, but AFAIK (I am not a doctor) not from contact with someone with chicken pox.

When you’ve had chicken pox the virus lays dormant at nerve roots. It is then reactivated as shingles if your immune system is low. So you get shingles because you have already had chicken pox. Your mum is perfectly safe as she must have had chicken pox in the past and is therefore immune.