Chicken Pox

[koalabear]

A friend came over with her baby on Sunday, to play with our baby. She rang on Monday to say that she had just found out that on the previous Friday, her daughter had been exposed to chicken pox.

Are we exposed? Doctor says that when someone is exposed to chicken pox, they typically developt the sores in 10 to 14 days, but they are not contagious until the 24 hours BEFORE the sores come out, and remain contagious until the sores have scabbed over.

So, exposure on Friday Day 1, visit to us on Sunday Day 3, she should not be contagious for at least another 7 days. Is this right? We need to be sure because I am in my first trimester with second baby.

Thanks

what you are saying sounds correct to me. Mine have just had chickenpox and as far as we are aware, they were only contagious a couple of days prior to spots developing and then for the next 5 days/scabs healed over.
I am not a medical expert though so if you are really concerned, ring NHS direct/speak to your GP.
Be careful if chicken pox is in the area though as chances are there will be other children developing it too. In our village we found that children who were about to come down with it seemed to have the same symptoms - irritable, often with a runny nose and mild cold symptoms, sometimes slight temp and difficult to settle at night.

Thanks - good advice considering DS1 is having first birthday party on Saturday!

Have you had chicken pox yourself? If yes, then no real worries I believe. You can get a bloodtest to see if you have the antibodies. You really need 2 bloodtests to confirm whether you had the disease as a child, or just last week

no. i have not had chicken pox

I think thw rorry for chicken pox is if you are close to giving birth - i think it's ok (if unpleasant) to get it earlier

As you say, your friends daughter should not have been infectious when she visited. Maybe best to wait to see if she comes out in scars in the next day or so.

There are two periods when it could cause complications. Close to birth and in 1st half of pregnancy. Main risk from 0-13 weeks is miscarriage (low risk though). From 13-21 weeks is a greater chance of the virus affecting the baby. Really bad time to get it is immediately before birth.

These are all low chances - I don't want to scare you.

Your options are to wait to see if your friend's daughter gets sores, then if you get sores.

You could get your blood tested to be sure (if you have had your antenatal booking in prior to exposure, you could use this blood to see if you had chicken pox as a child but didn't notice - quite common) Also get some new blood taken for a second test to see if you contracted it the other day.

I have heard (on US sites) that you can get antiviral drugs. I think this needs to be done asap but have no idea what nhs position is on this.

Let me know if you want to know anything more...

Sorry thread crashing.... everyone has given you fab advice! I just wanted to say fantastic posting name Tokenbloke!!

Found this on NHS Direct

Chickenpox

It sounds as tho you should be okay unless the child has it, broke out two days later and sneezed all over you.

Fingers Xed for you (it's rife in our area at the mo)

M