Outbreak of Shingles at nursery

[CrushWithEyeliner]

It was up on the noticeboard this morning as I dropped DD off - should I be concerned? Is it contagious?
I would have thought 2-3 is very young to get shingles....

Shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus and you can only get shingles if you have had chicken pox. Chicken pox is doing the rounds at the moment - DS has it.

Can't quite remember how it goes. You can only get shingles if you have had CP. I don't think you can catch shingles from someone with CP. Or vice versa. But I could be wrong!

You can't catch shingles but you could catch chickenpox from someone with shingles (same virus).

Info here

It's probably a member of staff who has developed shingles.

Yes I caught chickenpox from a girl with shingles when we were 9 but I think it is quite unusual for a child to have shingles I think.

But I couldn't catch shingles off her as I didn't previously have the CP virus.

You can usually only get chickenpox once but you can get shingles more than once.

I got shingles when I was 11 and I was told that was pretty rare. I'd be seriously shocked if nursery-age children were getting it. Isn't it linked to being a bit run down, too?

My ds has shingles just now and he's only 4.

We both have had a heavy cold for 3 weeks, so im guessing thats why he's run down, he's usually a vegtable eating rosy cheeked monster!

He hasn't ever actually come out in chicken pox, but the doc said he must have caught the virus before although he didn't get the symptoms....!

He's not at all ill with it, just a bit fed up at being off nursery/no contact with other kids etc.

thanks all - the nursery confirmed it was a child, apparently they are contagious if you come into contact with the sores, which is confusing as CP is airborne isn't it?

Shingles is not contagious in that you cannot catch shingles from another person. Similarly you cannot catch shingles from a child with chicken pox.

However you can contract chicken pox from a person with shingles. I though this was through contact rather than airborne but may be wrong in that.

You can only get shingles if you have had chicken pox previously.

It is uncommon for young children to get shingles, but there are cases. One of DD's friends had shingles at 5yo.

my 6 yr old daughter was diagnosed with shingles this morning ... cold sore type blisters appeared on saturday night on one side of her back and more by this morning ...have to wait till tommorow before she can get her antiviral medicine as none of the 4 chemists stocked in where i stay

thought as well it was unusual for a child to catch it