how contagious is SHINGLES? (CHICKEN POX VIRUS)?
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Are shingles catching? \n\nYes. Shingles can be spread from an affected person to children or adults who have not had chickenpox. Instead of developing shingles, these people develop chickenpox. Once they have had chickenpox, people cannot catch shingles (or contract the virus) from someone else. Once infected, however, persons have the potential to develop shingles later in life. \n\nShingles are contagious, to persons that have not previously had chicken pox, as long as there are new blisters forming and old blisters healing. Once all of the blisters are crusted over, the virus can no longer be spread.
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Chicken Pox (Varicella)\nA highly contagious and common viral infection that causes a rash. Chicken pox infections occur year-round, most often during winter and spring.\nWhat are the symptoms?\n\nThe incubation period—the time from exposure to the chicken pox virus until you develop symptoms—is usually 14 to 16 days but can be from 10 to 21 days. You or your child may feel sick and have a fever for 1 or 2 days before the chicken pox rash  develops. The most distinctive sign of infection is an itchy rash of red spots and blisters. Some children may have a worse rash and more symptoms than others.\n\nIt takes about 1 or 2 days for a chicken pox red spot (macule) to go through all of its stages, including blistering, bursting, drying, and crusting over. New red spots continue to develop every day for as long as 5 to 7 days. Symptoms usually last about 10 days.\n\nChildren usually can return to school or daycare when they stop developing new red spots.\n\nTeenagers, adults—especially pregnant women—and anyone with other conditions or illnesses should see a health professional.\n\nAs for shingles, you can only GET SHINGLES IF YOU HAVE HAD CHICKEN POX, the virus lays dormant, and may reactivate, when stressed, or some virus etc.\n\nShingles\nShingles is a disease caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you have had chickenpox, the chickenpox virus remains inactive in your body in certain nerves. If the virus does become active again, usually later in life, it causes shingles. Shingle is very painful.\n\nMy husband is a insulin diabetic, and came down with chicken pox, from our daughter, with in a fortnight of her coming down with them. And was very ill. \n\nPlease if you believe your son has chicken pox please seek medical assistance immediately, especially as he has a disability.\n\nI seriously hope he has not got chicken pox, if he does your in for a rough ride. \n\nTake care and good luck.
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The only way to avoid getting the chicken pox is to have had them or to get the vaccine. There is no immunity to it that you can naturally build up. \n\nIt is way worse to get the chicken pox as an adult. It can even be fatal. In adults a different strain of the chicken pox is also known as shingles, which is also extremely itchy / painful and just as dangerous. \n\nIf you want to get the Varicella vaccine, you can go to your local health clinic or doctors office and request it. It will be a series of 2 shots since you are over 12 yrs old. I beleive they are spaced 3 or 6 months apart. \n\nI hope this helps. Good luck and God Bless!!!
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It depends on what kind of herpes you are talking about.\n\nHerpes simplex virus 1 (cold sores) can be spread by simply kissing or being kissed by someone who has sores on or around their mouth. \n\nHerpes simplex virus 2 (genital herpes) can be spread by skin to skin contact or having sex with someone with the virus. Even if they have no visible sores they could possibly be "shedding" the virus. \n\nHerpes zoster (shingles) can be linked to having exposure to someone with chickenpox.\n\nAs for the girl above, there are not thousands of types of herpes. There are only three main types. Maybe she is thinking of HPV (Human papillomavirus), and even then, there are any where from 30 to 100 kinds of HPV, not thousands!
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Try the link below. It has some answers for you.\nhttp://www.medinfo.co.uk/conditions/shingles.html
371655
As long as there are sores in the mouth it is contagious. But be careful it can be hell to get.
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TRUE\n\nChicken pox = varicella zoster virus (VZV)\nMeasles = rubeola virus (paramyxovirus family)\nMumps = mumps virus (paramyxovirus family)\n\nThere are vaccines for ALL (yes, even for chicken pox now) so they are all preventable viral infections.
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I'm not a doctor, but I do know people who've had shingles. Most people who have recurring outbreaks have weakened immune systems, either from disease or stress. It's important to take good care of yourself and try to avoid stressful situations. At the first sign of another outbreak, contact your doctor who will probably prescribe aciclovir.
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HIV and VZV (varicella zoster virus) are both viruses...  People with weakened immune systems (HIV) are more likely to have outbreaks of shingles.
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I had chicken pox(yes, confirmed by Doc, not shingles) when I was 23. It started out with feeling unwell then turned into pleurisy(inflammation of the lining of the lungs)and I whistled like a tea kettle and could not inhale deeply without doubling over.The next day the spots appeared. My sons were 1 and 4 at the time and I gave it to them. It lasted for weeks and I had to go to the doctors every other day so he could make sure I did not get pneumonia. I had them on my palms, my soles of my feet, even my gums!(couldn't brush because they'd pop and spread.) I laid on the couch sick as a dog for 2 weeks until the baby got them too.He was relentless because every time I would lay down he would come pick my spots.I have 3 scars on my face from him. We laugh about this now that he's 11 but it wasn't fun at the time.
1110176
Chickenpox is a common disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which is part of the herpesvirus family. Although many people associate the word herpes with genital herpes, the herpesvirus family is made up of nearly 100 kinds of viruses, eight of which cause disease in humans. Examples of different herpesviruses are herpes simplex virus (which causes cold sores and genital herpes infections), Epstein-Barr virus (which causes infectious mononucleosis), and varicella-zoster virus (which causes chickenpox and shingles). Varicella-zoster virus spreads in the air through coughs or sneezes or through contact with fluid from inside the chickenpox blisters. \n\nChickenpox, which occurs most often in the late winter and early spring, is very contagious - if exposed to an infected family member, about 80% to 90% of those in a household who haven't had chickenpox will get it. However, immunization of children with the chickenpox vaccine that's now available is expected to decrease cases of the disease dramatically over the next few years. \n\nAlthough it's more common in kids under the age of 15, anyone can get chickenpox. A person usually has only one episode of chickenpox in his or her lifetime. But the virus that causes chickenpox can lie dormant within the body and can cause a different type of skin eruption later in life called shingles, also referred to as herpes-zoster. \n\n\n\nSigns and Symptoms\nChickenpox is a viral infection that causes a red, itchy rash on the skin. The chickenpox rash usually appears first on the abdomen or back and face, and then spreads to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp, mouth, nose, ears, and genitals. \n\nThe rash begins as multiple small, red bumps that look like pimples or insect bites. They develop into thin-walled blisters filled with clear fluid, which then becomes cloudy. The blister wall breaks, leaving open sores, which finally crust over to become dry, brown scabs. One of the most characteristic features of the chickenpox rash is that all stages of the lesions can be present at the same time. \n\nChickenpox blisters are about a quarter to half an inch wide, have a reddish base, and appear in bouts over 2 to 4 days. Some children have only a few blisters, whereas others have several hundred. The rash may be more extensive or severe in kids who have skin disorders such as eczema.\n\nSome children have a fever, abdominal pain, or a vague sick feeling a day or 2 before the rash appears. These symptoms may last for a few days, and fever stays in the range of 100 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 to 38.8 degrees Celsius), although it may occasionally be higher. Younger children often have milder symptoms and fewer blisters than older children or adults.\n\nNormally, chickenpox is a mild illness, but certain groups of people are more likely to have a more severe illness that could lead to complications. These include infants, adolescents, adults, and people with weak immune systems from either illnesses or from medications such as long-term steroid use. The most common complication of severe chickenpox illness in these groups of people is a bacterial infection that can involve many sites of the body including the skin around the blisters, bones, lungs, joints, and the blood. Other serious complications are due to the virus itself infecting the organs and include viral pneumonia, bleeding problems, and inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).\n\nAnyone who has had chickenpox as a child is at risk for a complication later in life called shingles. After an infection, some of the varicella-zoster virus may remain inactive in nerve cells near the spinal cord. Many years later, the virus can reactivate and resurface as shingles. When it reactivates, it affects the nerve to the skin. Symptoms, such as a tingling feeling, itching, or pain followed by a rash with red bumps and blisters appear only in the area of the skin that the nerve goes to. \n\nContagiousness
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Ringworm is contagious- usually you get it from direct contact (you would have had to touch her skin where the ringworm is), but sometimes from sharing clothing.  The only symptom is the rash itself- if you notice it on your body, start treating it right away- don't worry, it will go away!!!
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The adult version of the chicken pox virus is shingles.  You will usually feel an itchy, tingling sensation on your body, which would later turn into a rash, that either circles your torso or appears in clusters down one side.  Chicken pox is treated at home, with no need for doctor/medication unless complications set in, but meds may be required for shingles.  Contact your doc if a rash appears.\n\nhttp://www.angelic1healing.com
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Shingles is a painful blistering rash caused by reactivation of varicella, the chickenpox virus. It is correctly known as herpes zoster. \n\nChicken Pox is the primary infection with the virus, Herpes zoster, also called ‘varicella-zoster’. During this widespread infection, which usually occurs in childhood, virus is seeded to nerve cells in the spinal cord, usually of nerves that supply sensation to the skin. \n\nThe virus remains in a resting phase in these nerve cells for years before it is reactivated and grows down the nerves to the skin to produce shingles (zoster). This can occur in childhood but is much more common in adults, especially the elderly. \n\nThe first sign of shingles is usually pain, which may be severe, in the areas of one or more sensory nerves, often where they emerge from the spine. The pain may be just in one spot or it may spread out. The patient usually feels quite unwell with fever and headache. The lymph nodes draining the affected area are often enlarged and tender. \n\nWithin one to three days of the onset of pain, a blistering rash appears in the painful area of skin. Sometimes, especially in children, shingles is painless. \n\nIt starts as a crop of closely-grouped red bumps in a continuous band on the area of skin supplied by one, occasionally two, and rarely more neighbouring spinal nerves. New lesions continue to appear for several days, each blistering or becoming pustular then crusting over. Shingles occasionally causes blisters inside the mouth or ears, and can also affect the genital area. \n\nThe pain and general symptoms subside gradually as the eruption disappears. In uncomplicated cases recovery is complete in 2-3 weeks in children and young adults, and 3 to 4 weeks in older patients. \n\nOccasionally pain is not followed by the eruption - shingles "sine eruptione". \n\nThe chest (thoracic), neck (cervical), forehead (ophthalmic) and lumbar/sacral sensory nerve supply regions are most commonly affected at all ages but the frequency of ophthalmic shingles increases with age. Rarely the eruption may affect both sides of the body. \n\nIn elderly and undernourished patients the blisters are deeper. Healing may take many weeks and be followed by scarring. Muscle weakness arises in about one in twenty patients because the muscle nerves are affected as well as the sensory nerves. Facial nerve palsy is the most common result. There is a 50% chance of complete recovery and in time some improvement can be expected in nearly all cases.
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I hope it's not contagious. Don't couch or sneeze on your PC, please.
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Babies can get shingles, but only if they have previously had chicken pox, or the varicela vaccine (varicela-zoster is the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, it is in the herpes family, but it is not herpes).  When someone has chicken pox or the vaccine, the virus does not die completely, but hides out inside of nerves in the spinal cord (the varicela vaccine is a live attenuated virus, meaning it is a virus that can infect but has some abnormality that makes it so you don't get sick).  When the person becomes immune suppressed, the virus can reemerge and cause infection along the dermatome (strip of skin) where the virus was originally contracted.  Was the vaccine given in the shoulder?  Or did your child get chicken pox in the past?  There is not a good treatment for shingles, but don't give aspirin as this can cause Reye's syndrome (fatty liver).
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no sweetheart, shingles is a secondary infection to varricella (chicken pox) the only thing you can use is something like calamine lotion or a good emmoliant (E45) and take some brufen if you feel shit (dont take these if your astmatic or have tummy problems)\ngood like huni\nxxxx