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AIBU?

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Original poster

To fly with chicken pox?

133 replies

beepboo · 11/02/2018 18:51

My son is two days into having chicken pox, we're due to fly to Bora Bora on Wednesday!!!!!
Should we try and get on the flight?? It's a been booked for a year and cost a small fortune!!! We have two other children who have already had the pox. Will he still be contagious by Wednesday?!Sad

OP posts:
TwuntingCrow · 11/02/2018 23:14

Vaccination just reduces the chances .. two of mine had the vax then went on to get cp - cp vax is a lot like flu - they vax against the main strains - but can't vax against all of them

sycamore54321 · 12/02/2018 01:49

They are contagious before the spots even arrive. We can't always predict these things. Potentially our eldest is contagious as he hasn't got spots yet. He could fly without question. How is that fair?

Oh FFS There is always someone says something like this on threads about infectious diseases. It isn't about fair. It's about living in a society with other human beings and issues of risk. Yes of course anybody could be incubating and contagious before shots at any given time. So that would mean never having human contact ever, in the rare event the person was incubating chicken pox. A pretty big inconvenience for a fairly small chance. However when they have pus-filled spots, we know for absolute certain that they are contagious. So it's acting on what we know for sure - this person is definitely contagious right now - and tailoring a response to that - this contagious person cannot fly for X days. A definite case of contagion, balanced with a brief, defined, transitory period of inconvenience. The two situations are in no way alike. In the particular case mentioned in that post, I would think it irresponsible to take a child known to be exposed to the virus on a flight when in the incubation period. Of course nobody can visibly see he is at risk, but you know he is, and people like the immunosuppressed, or the pregnant or the newborn rely on all the rest of us doing our bit and taking sensible precautions. It's not "fair", it's quid pro quo for living in a community and being a social animal.

IceBearRocks · 12/02/2018 02:12

My DS was hospitalised for 2 weeks with Chicken Pox .... We nearly like st him twice ... Please don't !!!!!

MorningstarMoon · 12/02/2018 02:20

YWBVU, it wouldn't be fair to other passengers.

brummiesue · 12/02/2018 02:36

Nhs guidelines are 5 days from 1st spot if no new ones developing and they are crusted over so you may be ok. When we flew at Xmas the airline wanted a letter saying it had been 10 days since they started so check with your airline about that - they spotted his spots at check in immediately! Also the doctors letter took a couple of days to sort/ be typed etc so you may be pushing it, maybe fly out with him a couple of days later? Feel awful for you Sad

PyongyangKipperbang · 12/02/2018 02:50

So why aren't people vaccinating against CP? Obviously some can't but ffs this is avoidable!

Because there currently isnt not proven that the protection is life long and therefore may lead to adults, who think they are immune, exposing themselves to and getting CP as adults when it is a far more serious illness.

PyongyangKipperbang · 12/02/2018 02:51

*is not or isnt!

PyongyangKipperbang · 12/02/2018 02:53

FFS....

Because it isnt currently proven that....

roundaboutthetown · 12/02/2018 02:54

The airline would turn you away at the airport. You are not allowed to knowingly fly with an infectious disease. To try to hide the spots would end you up in a lot of trouble and I suspect you would be voiding your travel insurance policy.

AstridWhite · 12/02/2018 03:15

It would be especially U to somewhere like Bora Bora with an infectious child, it will be full of honeymooners and babymooners who might be in the very early stages of pregnancy. Sad

mathanxiety · 12/02/2018 03:22

TwuntingCrow Sun 11-Feb-18 23:14:49
Vaccination just reduces the chances .. two of mine had the vax then went on to get cp - cp vax is a lot like flu - they vax against the main strains - but can't vax against all of them

This is not so.
There is only one chicken pox virus, for all functional purposes, though several clades have been identified. It does not have the same antigenic variability that flu virus has so there is no variability in effectiveness of the vaccine.

People who are vaccinated against CP can get mild symptoms as a result of the vaccine.

Bettyfood · 12/02/2018 03:22

Ignore any advice on this thread, OP, other than that which says to check with your doctor and airline.

mathanxiety · 12/02/2018 03:31

Pyongyang - it is very possible that catching wild CP as a child may not confer lifelong immunity either, in places where vaccination is widespread, due to the lack of exposure that can act as a booster. It is hypothesised that the absence of wild exposure contributes to waning immunity in some communities after vaccination programmes.

justilou1 · 12/02/2018 04:17

As an ex flight attendant, I can assure you that you will be lucky to be allowed on board with a kid with obvious chicken pox lesions. It is not just about you, but about the possibly pregnant women on board, immunosuppressed passengers, etc. I wouldn't risk it. Besides this, the chicken pox virus get worse with sun exposure. (This is why it is so prevalent in the summer time) You could risk making your child worse.

KERALA1 · 12/02/2018 06:32

A friends baby developed cp while they were away they weren't allowed to fly back insurance covered hotel bill while they waited it out. This situation is what travel insurance is for.

SilverBirchTree · 12/02/2018 06:37

Please don’t fly OP.

Do you have travel insurance? If not, try calling the airline & hotel explaining what happened and ask for a refund/reschedule. They wouldn’t want you to fly/stay with them right now, so it’s in their interests to offer you an incentive to stay home.

Crappy timing, sorry about your holiday Flowers

SandLand · 12/02/2018 06:44

Are there 2 adults? You might be best having one adult and the 2 pox free children flying as planned, and the second adult trying to reschedule the flights for next week? You also need to check if the insurance will cover you all due to one ill child.
But yes, insurance, then gp as soon as they open.

JoandMax · 12/02/2018 06:45

You poor things, horrid timing! I really sympathize, DS2 had chicken pox the week we were due to travel for our first ever holiday with him (he’d been a very poorly baby and in and out of hospital for his first 2 years so we desperately needed it!). I was devastated! But insurance were great and we ended up going 2 weeks later and all was great.

Give insurance a ring and your holiday provider and see what your options are

JoandMax · 12/02/2018 06:46

Also - even though we were 2 adults and 2 children insurance covered us all as they treated it was a ‘family’ delay rather than just one person

bellabasset · 12/02/2018 07:15

My sister caught CP from our younger cousins when she was 19 and I had it a few days later. It was my first Xmas after I was married and just getting over a cold. I was also poorly for about 3 weeks.

We'd taken our little cousin's to see Father Christmas at Selfridges and neither of them had any signs of it then. My dh met a friend on the tube who had caught it from his dc's and he had been ill with it.

Older people can get shingles from being in contact with chicken pox which is very unpleasant. The NHS offer vaccinations for over 70's against shingles. My uncle had shingles and he was very ill with it.

brummiesue · 12/02/2018 08:03

Sorry bellabasset but that isn't correct. Shingles is a reactivation of a previous chicken pox virus, you cannot catch it from someone with chicken pox.

waitingforlifetostart · 12/02/2018 08:06

My god. Are people really this stupid and selfish?

TwuntingCrow · 12/02/2018 08:26

Mathanxiety - not what our virologist says .. my two had full blown cp on two different occasions - not related to when they had the vaccine at all ...

Backenette · 12/02/2018 08:29

Math is correct.
Twunting yes it is possible to get cp twice or more. A minority of people don’t have a sufficient antibody response to confer lifelong immunity.

yorkshireyummymummy · 12/02/2018 09:14

I have had chicken pox twice.
Once as a child just after I had my tonsils out ( felt doubly grotty)
And then I got it as an adult. Over 400 spots...........and SIX WEEKS before I got married.!!!
I spent two weeks in bed wearing gloves and crying hoping that all the spots would be gone before my wedding.
They were. But I infected two people at work before I knew I was ill.

Hope you are going to follow the sensible advice OP and go to your doctor.

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