Can you catch chicken poxs from shingles?

[whitestar]

My sister is 38 weeks pregnant and her mil rang to say she has shingles but her doctor says it's not contagious? I thought that you could get chicken poxs from it. I don't think mil would take the news well if she couldn't visit baby when it arrives but I have 5 week old baby and don't want poxs either!

I am sure you can.

Oh, maybe not:

Is shingles contagious?
No. You cannot get shingles from someone who has it.

Sorry confusing here. Ignore last message.

You cannot catch shingles from somewone with shingles. However,

"According to the CDC, 'yes, people with shingles are contagious to persons who have not had chickenpox. Therefore, people who have not had chickenpox can catch chickenpox if they have close contact with a person who has shingles.
"

That's a tricky one. It is the same virus, but I guess you knew that or you wouldn't be asking. IIRC, it would probably depend on where the blisters were. They are filled with the virus, you know. My ex-h is a dentist and a friend of his got an infection under his fingernail (this was mid-eighties. pre-gloves era) from a patient who had a fever blister, which is also a herpetic infection.

Ah, good to know hb. I was also going to say, it would make me a bit nervous with a newborn, tbh.

Yes, you can definitely gat chicken pox from direct contact with shingles.

You can't catch shingles from someone else as it's a reactivation of their old chickepox virus.
However if you haven't had chickenpox it is possible that you could catch that from the person with shingles if you have close skin-to-skin contact with their blisters (yuck).

They should have tested SIL's chicken pox status when she was pg - if she's had it before she's fine to see MIL, and if she breastfeeds the baby will have some immunity as well. The same goes for you and the 5weekold!

(NB shingles is no fun and can make you feel very ill, so MIL deserves a bit of sympathy)

shingles is contagious and you can catch chickenpox from it. However, you'd only catch chicken pox through direct contact with the rash or with its secretions. So basically would be fine for your sister's MIL to visit either baby as long as she doesn't touch them. Plus, her rash should heal in about 10 days and wouldn't be contagious after that.

hi there

I caught chicken pox from my husband when he had shingles. Both were really nasty and we were both very ill (fortunately he was well by the time I was unwell!)I'd just be careful as I definitely didn't touch the shingles blisters he had but of course would have been in close contact over several contagious days.

you can ask to have the blood test to see whether you have a resisance to chicken pox - usually the result of having had chicken pox in the past. This is what I had to do as we were house hunting whilst pregnant with ds. one of the owner had shingle so I could not look at the house until my blood test results came back, u can get chicken pox from shingles as people have said her. Personally I would tell her to keep her distance.

Thanks for the advice I've told them just to be careful. The baby is my sisters first so it probably won't arrive for at least 2 weeks any way

hmmm, now I'm a bit annoyed, when I was 6 weeks pg (and having all sorts of pains, problems, early scans etc), my DH had shingles and I have never had chicken pox but there was no concern or worry from GP as there was 'no risk' to me or LO.

My mother in law had it when DS1 was born, she wasn't allowed to visit in hospital as although I had had the chicken pox you can't be sure about anyone else. FIL took a video and she stayed in the car park!