Bugger. Colleague/mate has been diagnosed with shingles. I have had chicken pox (twice!) so I will be ok, won't I?

[MamaG]

I don't think I need to ring the MW...do I? I haven't snogged her

you can't catch shingles it's a stress induced reactivation of a dormant chickenpox virus

Thanks twig

if you've had CP twice you must be resistant by now surely? (although mebbe not)

If you have had chickenpox before I think you are fine

meaning someone who hasn't had CP could get CP from someone with shingles if they've also developed lesions and you'r ein close contact with weeping sores

so have you been rubbing her weeping sores?

no, I have get away from her weeping sore

get? kept!

Had similar situation at Xmas - this was useful

Definately don't go licking her open sores though

Thanks DonDons

I am in similar situation but with Chicken Pox. A colleague has just gone down with it. I am 7 weeks pregnant and have had it 3 (yes 3) times. What happend if you get chicken pox in pregnancy?

you can catch chickenpox from somebody with shingles - but if you've already had chickenpox then you will be immune and will be OK. As said above shingles is reactivation of your own chickenpox virus

I worry about that too art - having had CP twice, I don't hink I'm fully immune!

Exactly MamaG. Clearly our immune systems find this particular virus a bigger challenge that they should.

This happened to me, I had already had chicken pox twice and came in contact with a colleague with shingles. I phoned NHS direct and they said they would normally say that if you've had chicken pox before then you are immune, but if you've had it twice then that indicates an impaired immune system and that I should go to the doctors. In the end I was sent to the hospital for a blood test to check my immunity. It turned out I had developed immunity to c pox so there was nothing to worry about. I was glad I went for peace of mind though.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about shingles and chickenpox. Twiglett is right, you can't catch shingles but you can catch chicken pox from shingles. It's also not true that you can't get chicken pox more than once (as Artichokes and MamaG will testify). It's rare (I was told about 2% of people) but you can get it more than once if your immune system in a bit knackered. That'll be me then...!

forgot to say I was 7 wks pregnant when this happened, hence the panic!

Thanks for that PL. Artichokes, perhaps we should get checked out, just to be sure