Autoresponder – Blog

Did your child receive his regular childhood vaccinations? He should be OK.

Hi – here’s the low down:

People who are immune to chicken pox cannot pick up or get the virus again (there a rare exceptions to this). Your husband has probably had chicken pox so he is immune and can’t bring it home. Also, your child may have had the vaccine in which case he would also be immune anyway.

If your husband is NOT immune to chichen pox, he can only get it if he wasin contact with his co-worker’s lesions. If he is not immune and has had contact, he should see a doctor because chicken pox in adults is far more serious than in children.

The illness (chicken pox) has an incubation period of 14 – 21 days and would not be clinically apparent until then. People are contagious by the airborne route from 2 days before spots show up to the time they crust over. People with shingles are not contagious by the airborne route but only by direct contactand then only to people who have not had chicken pox.

All said – even if your child is not vaccinated, risk is very low. If your husband has not had chicken pox, he should get treated by a doctor because he could get worse disease.

Hope this helps!

Dr. P.