Chicken pox - stay in?

[fffffeeeedddduupp]

Quick question when my dd's were young we were advised to keep them at home if they have chicken pox until crusted over. We are going to an Easter event today and dd is wanting to bring dgc who has chicken pox. She says it's just school they stay home from nowadays so can still go out other than school. Who's right?

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor because the US has a private health care system. Chicken pox isn't harmful to the majority of people so there's no justification for the vaccination to be funded on the NHS

Thank you everyone I assumed this was the case. Think dd thought I was offering outdated advice and the nhs site is ambiguous

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

Why don't we have a CP vaccine if it's so dangerous to pregnant women just like we do with Rubella?

There is a chicken pox vaccine. All three of my kids have had it. I can't remember the last time I heard of a kid here with chicken pox.

It's personal choice it has no mandatory isolation other than school and work. If I was pregnant and not immune I wouldn't go to an Easter event with loads of kids who could be incubating all sorts anyway.

I no someone who lied to airline to get back off holiday with chicken pox so going to an event seems very low risk in comparison

@vickyc90

It's personal choice it has no mandatory isolation other than school and work. If I was pregnant and not immune I wouldn't go to an Easter event with loads of kids who could be incubating all sorts anyway.

I no someone who lied to airline to get back off holiday with chicken pox so going to an event seems very low risk in comparison

Personal choice still carries some responsibility to others surely?

Just because people take riskier and more selfish decisions doesn't mean everyone has to. A person on that flight could have ended up pretty ill after it all because one person thought their 'right' to fly was more important than someone else's health

@MJ123 it does but being pregnant and vulnerable to a childhood illness also carries the same responsibility to stay away from area where your likely to get infected in my opinion.

[quote vickyc90]@MJ123 it does but being pregnant and vulnerable to a childhood illness also carries the same responsibility to stay away from area where your likely to get infected in my opinion. [/quote]
Assuming you know you're pregnant. Assuming that you've had the diagnosis through for those weird symptoms you have.

Even if we ignore the above, shouldn't we all try to not spread germs around? If I have a stomach bug for example, it's probably not going to be seriously bad for anyone but I wouldn't go to a party - I'd expect the same of my friends and family tbh.

A spotty poxy child should be at home not in a place with lots of people who could be vulnerable or pregnant.

@MJ123

Honestly, why have people suddenly gotten so selfish?

You're in the right OP, why would you knowingly take a child with an active virus that can be very nasty to those with other conditions or who are pregnant to what sounds like a party?! What if there's a female relative there in her first trimester who hasn't told anyone yet? Or what if there's an elderly relative with an autoimmune condition?

I really hope our care for others returns soon

Suddenly? At the beginning of the pandemic there were a lot of people saying that it was only dangerous to the vulnerable and they were going to die anyway so it didn't matter. I was vulnerable and pregnant at the time, I had to exclude myself from so many things to keep myself safe because other people apparantly had a right to live life normally (but not me). That showed me that so many more people were selfish than I thought.

I don't disagree @fossilsmorefossils - I'm not one for Rose tinted glasses but it does seem that people felt more responsibility towards each other/society even 10 years ago.

Until they are fully scabbed over it's stay at home

They don't print 'don't go out for fun' because they assume people have some common sense and if they can't go to school/work they can't go to the cinema either

Yes OP it's not outdated, your Daughter should not be taking her child out to an Easter event who has chicken pox, it can be really serious as previously said.

The NHS advice isn’t ambiguous in the least - it clearly says you must avoid going anywhere there may be newborns, pregnant people, immunocompromised people and it says that it’s highly contagious until the scabs have all formed - about 5 days. www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/

Too many people have abdicated decisions about the risk of spreading infection to the government, imo. They’ve become so used to having a press conference of officials dictating what they can and can’t do that they think something is either illegal or it’s absolutely fine.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

Why don't we have a CP vaccine if it's so dangerous to pregnant women just like we do with Rubella?

The CP vaccine, like most vaccines, is likely to wear off eventually (rubella vaccine often does too). It is considered safer to catch CP in childhood and gain natural immunity (likely to be life long) than to have a vaccine that might only last 10-15 years, therefore increasing your risk of catching CP as an adult. This is much riskier, especially in pregnancy.

[quote DiscoBadgers]The NHS advice isn’t ambiguous in the least - it clearly says you must avoid going anywhere there may be newborns, pregnant people, immunocompromised people and it says that it’s highly contagious until the scabs have all formed - about 5 days. www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/[/quote]
I know what you mean but it doesn't say stay at home. People can pick holes if they want to.

Wrap all the eggs you have in masks and isolate them in the small kitchen fridge. Just use the big pantry fridge for the next 10 days.

Sorted!

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor mainly it is not given for financial reasons and because there were fears that reduced exposure to CP by adults would lead to a rise in shingles in adults. The latter has been proven to be wrong in the data collected across Europe and the IS where the vaccine is routinely given to all children. I hope eventually the UK will follow suit and offer the vaccination.

www.ox.ac.uk/research/everything-you-need-know-about-chickenpox-and-why-more-countries-don’t-use-vaccine

@iolaus

Until they are fully scabbed over it's stay at home

They don't print 'don't go out for fun' because they assume people have some common sense and if they can't go to school/work they can't go to the cinema either

Unfortunately, I think assuming that everyone has common sense is dangerous... Not everyone is capable of using critical thinking to analyse the information provided and apply it to their personal situation.

I read a post on MN recently that stated the average reading age in the UK is 9 (had a quick Google just now and found this article which backs the claim up, although I'd personally prefer some more sources... however it helps to illustrate the point).

I can imagine that there are people out there who will take the NHS advice literally and not think to stay away from other public places/events.

It is an infectious disease and should be treated as such. When I was eight l was off school for nearly a month with it as l was very poorly with my - so much so that the doctor came to check that it was chickenpox and not smallpox, which had not been eradicated at that point. It was considered infectious until all the spots had disappeared - the doctor told my mother that the infection was still active under the dried up spots. This was the 1970s. I know thinking changed and these days the infection is considered to be over once the spots have dried out but l still erred on the side of caution when my own children had it. It is usually a relatively mild disease but, as others have mentioned, can be much more dangerous for adults and pregnant women. Occasionally people have died of it.

You are right, you need to wait until they have scabbed

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

We do, it’s just not given routinely in the UK

But why not? I know you can have it done privately but why isn't done as standard like in the US?

Partly cost I suspect, but also fear of increasing vaccine hesitancy.

I definitely think it needs to be added.