Does anyone have any experience of covid and chicken pox at the same time?

[Boofay]

Because my nine year old DS has just been exposed to both.
It's just bloody typical. We were planning on getting him vaccinated against CP, and the local pharmacy was just about to roll out the jab again.

My younger DD came out in the spots on Saturday so we reckon he'll break out in the spots in a couple of weeks. Just had notification from school today that he's had a positive case in his class. Turns out the child was sat opposite him on his table on Friday.
So that's potentially two viruses currently percolating around his body right now. Has anyone else had to deal with this? Looking for reassurance that the next few weeks aren't going to be a shit show, but also here for the truth so I can prepare myself.

I do not have personal experience or knowledge of a child having both Covid and chicken pox at the same time. They are however two very different types of virus but I appreciate that this is still a huge concern for you. Given your son's age I would be much more focused on the chicken pox and not worry too much about the Covid.

My first DC was hospitalised with chicken pox, so I unfortunately do know a fair bit about it. It can be a very serious virus, particularly if infected as an adult and I would strongly urge parents to consider the vaccine for their children which is available from the age of 12 months.

In researching to answer this post, I was quite shocked to read on this NHS article why chicken pox vaccination is not part of the routine childhood immunisations. In short it is to protect adults against the risk of contracting shingles or alternatively let's put children's health at risk from chicken pox so adults health is not at risk from shingles. The adults of course could choose to get a chicken pox vaccine themselves which would solve this. Anyway the article explains it better than I can:

www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccine-questions-answers/

@1dayatatime my children have been vaccinated against chickenpox but the doctor who did it, administered the vaccine did it via the intramuscular route rather than subcutaneous. Don't know if that will affect their immunity as it wasn't how it was meant to be given.

I am glad I had them vaccinated but I worry that it'll wear off over time and I want to know they still have immunity as they get into their teens somehow.

@Boofay one of my children was exposed to both too. There are 8 cases of covid in her class. And one chickenpox exposure. So we'll see.

My son had both and no symptoms Covid just itchy spots no sickness.

In short it is to protect adults against the risk of contracting shingles

I think you’ve misunderstood, you can’t ‘catch’ shingles from someone who has chickenpox.

Being exposed to chickenpox after you've had it already boosts your immunity to shingles. Nothing to do with catching it (although you can the other way - catch chickenpox from people with shingles if you've never had it)

You only get shingles if you've had chickenpox, and every time you are exposed subsequently to the chickenpox virus, it boosts your immune response and helps to reduces the risk of developing shingles.

Children getting chickenpox means the adults around them are exposed to the virus, thus reducing the incidences of shingles on a population level. Vaccinating children would mean that the adult population stop having their immune response challenged by exposure to the virus and the rate of shingles will go up.

The cost of vaccinations and the increased (albeit reasonably short-term) cost of treating more people for shingles has made it an unattractive option for the NHS.

The NHS website explains it better than I did:

'We could also see a significant increase in cases of shingles in adults.
When people get chickenpox, the virus remains in the body. This can then reactivate at a later date and cause shingles.
Being exposed to chickenpox as an adult (for example, through contact with infected children) boosts your immunity to shingles.
If you vaccinate children against chickenpox, you lose this natural boosting, so immunity in adults will drop and more shingles cases will occur.

A doctor friend mentioned the thing about kids with chicken pox boosting adult's immunity to the virus.
So far, no covid or CP in DS so I think he might have escaped covid (I pulled him out of school for the rest of the week), but I should imagine chicken pox will break out end of next week.
If he manages to escape it I'll get a CP vaccine booked asap.

Thanks all.