Quick! Help please with a pox-related question - how contageous 2nd hand??

[Itchyandscratchy]

MIL is looking after dd2 today. Dd2 has early stages of chickenpox.
MIL has had chickenpox and shingles.

MIL has cancelled a visit to an ill friend tomorrow. She won't have dd2 with her but she's scared she will expose this friend to dd2's pox, like MIL is a carrier or something. How alarmist or sensible is MIL being?

Sorry didn't mean to sound bossy! I'm only at the pooter for the next 30 mins tho then I'm going to see MIL and I want to be able to tell her the MN verdict. Several sites on the internet have differing views.

Alarmist. If she has already had chicken pox then she can't have caught it from your dd, so she isn't incubating it, and so can't pass it on. Any of the chicken pox virus which got into her system will have been defetaed by her immune system straight away.

The only time she'd need to worry would be if she happened to have an outbreak of shingles (completely unconnected to your dds visit) which can be catching by touch if its somewhere uncovered.

It's very, very, very unlikely she'd carry it, but if it's an avoidable risk and makes her feel more comfortable, then she's being fair enough really.

She herself will not be contageous even if she was going to get it, which sounds unlikely, and exposure to CP in an immune person is supposed to protect against shingles as shingles is caused by the original virus you had as a child which has lain dormant, exposure to CP 'reminds' the immune system how to fight it. You are most contageous day before symptoms develop, so in say 13 days time. But it can be spread by sneezing etc, so as a precaution could bath/ shower, wear different clothes.