to object to Chicken Pox quarantine advice?

[SummerMonths]

I understand CP can be nasty but I don't see any point in the quarantine advice. The virus is infectious for two days before the spots appear and obviously nobody knows it's coming so the virus is spread. Then the spots arrive and you have five days of house bound hell despite the fact you have already exposed people for days before.

And if the NHS were really concerned about stopping CP spreading they would vaccinate, but they don't. In fact they rely on kids getting CP young as it's more serious when old.

So can anyone explain the point of quarantine given you will already have exposed others to the virus? Isn't it rather a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

[GingerNutRiskIt]

A friend of mine has a son with Cystic Fibrosis. He can't be vaccinated against it and chicken pox could kill him. There are many many people in the same situation who cannot have vaccinations because the vaccination itself is too dangerous for them. Also, my auntie was born blind because of chickenpox. She actually lost one of her eyes. So keeping kids indoors for quarantine can stop people from knowingly being infected with something that can ruin lives. A health visitor once said to me that it's best not to get chicken pox at all, as kids do die from it. So there isn't always an advantage to getting it young.

[ghostyslovesheep]

you can catch it more than once - so your 'get it while you are young' idea is daft - you ABU

[LetsSplashMummy]

I think it is quite good advice on another level. I had CP as an adult (immunocompromised) and caught a secondary skin infection in the poxes. You are avoiding that happening to your child.

[SummerMonths]

If medical advice is seriously that it's best not to get it at all, and if they truly vaccinate the over 70s against shingles, then we should be vaccinating kids like they do in the States.

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

Not everyone who is exposed to chicken pox will form an immunity. I never have. I've had it a lot - it gets worse, every time. I've also had shingles. I just can't form an immunity.

For people like me, or people with chronic conditions or poor immune systems, or the small percentage of children who don't recover well from chicken pox, quarantining is absolutely a good idea. You might have met some of these people before you knew that you were infectious, but at that point, airborne droplets were the only way of spreading the infection. Once the spots are there, you become more infectious.

Vaccinating everyone would be ideal, but it's expensive and the NHS can't afford it, and it would still leave a cross-section of society for whom the vaccine wouldn't work.

[MrsJayy]

I got shingles when i was 20 they bloody hurt horrible it was my shoulder tingled and was stiff for months

[LegoRuinedMyFinances]

GingerNut children with CF can be vaccinated against it - but it can still be harmful to them if they catch CP, as it has other effects.

Equally immuno compromised people can suffer horrendous complications.

I suppose if you don't have any of these issues in your life it's easy to think why would you quarantine - but there are plenty of threads which highlights the damage of CP and how it can cause more issues for those people with long term illnesses already.

[SilverBirchWithout]

I caught chicken pox from my DS when he was a toddler. I was seriously ill, missed 4 weeks of work and have been left with scarring on my lungs.

IMO anything that can reduce the spread of CP is a sensible precaution.

[SummerMonths]

But given quarantine cannot be totally effective due to the two days before the spots appear, surely we should vaccinate to protect immuno compromised people. Quarantine cannot fully protect them.

[Undertheboredwalk]

There's a difference to exposing friends and exposing the unknowing general public though. My Dc both had cp last summer we didn't quarantine completely in that we visited friends and had play dates etc to break up the boredom, but it was friends who knew about the cp. some who had kids they wanted to catch it and get it out of the way, others who'd all had it so weren't worried about exposure. Exposing to the general public is irresponsible because there are some for who it can have serious consequences, they won't know they're being exposed and you won't know the circs of who you're exposing to.
The reasons for not vaccinating above are as far as I know correct, and it is healthier for the general population to not vaccinate, but at the same time we need to be aware of the vulnerable within that society and protect them as much as we can.

[TheWordOfBagheera]

Op, the advantage of getting CP as a child applies to a population as a whole, and to some individuals (arguably most people, but certainly not all).

So there will be people who need to avoid it, and there will also be some perfectly healthy people who develop serious and unexpected consequences from infection. It's therefore not really something to 'go looking for', despite benefit to be had from an uncomplicated infection. All of this doesn't necessarily mean that vaccinating makes sense for a population, just that people shouldn't take CP lightly.

It makes more sense for infected people to stay in for a few days than for the vulnerable to stay in all the time!

[StereophonicallyChallenged]

I have the shingle vaccine every two years and I'm not over 70! It doesn't fully stop shingles though as I caught it last year from a poxy child with a feckless parent who brought the child into work

As soon as I became aware it was CP the child had, I asked to leave, but the child had already been there two days at that point [hmmm]

I don't work there anymore....

[YoungGirlGrowingOld]

This is so blindingly obvious it's painful to explain....

You cannot vaccinate someone who is immuno-compromised not can you necessarily predict who is or will become immuno-compromised. People on chemo are susceptible for the duration of treatment. It's not really practical to expect them to defer treatment until their jabs are up to date - not a priority.

Your children will not suffer any adverse ill effects from being kept in for a few days. A chemo patient could die of CP. (And sadly your view is not uncommon - a colleague of mine refused to leave the office when I was on chemo for colon cancer and she was diagnosed with shingles... I got sepsis the following week. Not much fun.)

[Kewcumber]

The vaccine for shingles is relatively new and was introduced after the decision not to mass vaccinate. Openly the decision is cost, privately there is a theory that introducing a new vaccine for CP which is seen to be a minor illness after the MMR fiasco would be a step too far and take up would be low making it an expensive waste of time.

People who are immunosuppressed can sometimes (sometiems) be vaccinated but it higehr risk and not without complications.

When I was immunosuppressed the doctors put the fear of god into me about chicken pox.

[tabulahrasa]

you quarantine them because then they've been spreading the virus for 2 days instead of 7 or more...

[SiwanGwynt]

When mine had Chicken Pox, I did not know there was a quarantine period. I kept them at home when they did not feel well and took them to the park for a walk when they felt better. As soon as all the spots had scabbed they were back at nursery.

That was over 15 years ago when there was less fuss about it.

[Kewcumber]

There's a well known MN'er whose daughter caught CP during treatment for leukemia and suffered terribly. I would never in a million years expose anyone I didn;t know after reading her description of the effects it can have.

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

So you think it's good to catch CP when you're young - well yeah, I agree with that, but most young people live with older people. Some of whom are immuno-compromised - like my DM right now. And CP can also be catastrophic for some young people.

Whether we should immunise or not is a separate point to whether or not we should follow quarantine. I think we should do both.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

challenged you cannot catch shingles from chicken pox, but you can catch chicken pox from shingles.

Shingles usually occurs due to virus left behind from a previous chicken pox infection in the same person

[juneau]

The vaccine doesn't work anyway. DS1 was vaccinated, because we were living in the US when he was little, and when CP went round his nursery he got it. It wasn't even a mild dose either - he had about 200 spots and was really miserable for a few days.

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

I wish I'd had my children vaccinated. I didn't know there was one until it was too late. My eldest was very ill.
I have a friend who is on strong meds for rheumatoid arthritis. She has been left immunocompromised due to this and has been specifically warned about chicken pox - it could leave her seriously ill or kill her.
Stop being selfish. It's a few days at home for the sake of someone else's health.

[Penfold007]

My mum is immunosuppresed and can't have cp or shingles vaccine. Catching either would be likely to kill her so a huge thanks from me to all those parents who do quarantine their DC