Question 1

can you tell me how high are my chances of developing chickenpox from someone with shingles?

Accepted Answer

Rare but possible: The shingles patient can only spread the germ through contact with the debris, not through saliva or a cough as would be the case with chickenpox.Also, at a listed age of 50, your chance of never having Cpx as a kid are less than 4%, even if you don't remember it. A simple blood test could prove you once had Cpx and are immune.

Question 2

does chickenpox vaccine protect from shingles?

Accepted Answer

Maybe,maybe not: The vaccine developed to help suppress shingles has many times the amount of varicella  material than the chickenpox vaccine. Simple varicella vaccine use may res-erect some of your waning varicella antibodies and put off shingles but it may just protect you better against wild chickenpox.

Question 3

do i have chickenpox or is it shingles?

Accepted Answer

Location/spread ??: Chickenpox is a body wide infection with varicella virus that has come to the skin surface at the end of the prodrome period. The pox come out in crops of new blisters of various size & stage over a 5-7 day period. Shingles is the return of the varicella virus from hibernation in a nerve and limits its pain & blistering to the area of skin supplied by the nerve.

Question 4

is it possible to have the shingles and chickenpox?

Accepted Answer

Yes and no: Most adults (90%) who do not remember ever having cpx have blood evidence of prior infection. Once in your system, the cpx germ hibernates in nerve roots along the front of your spine and at some point may emerge as shingles. If you had the chickenpox vaccine, but not chickenpox, there is some risk of shingles from the vaccine virus doing the same thing.

Question 5

what is the disparity between chickenpox and shingles?

Accepted Answer

Primary vs return: Chickenpox is the primary infection of a patient by the wild varicella virus.It has an incubation phase, a blood phase, is spread in saliva and in material from the spots all over. After the primary infection it goes into hibernation in nerve clusters along the spinal cord. It can emerge from hibernation years later as a localized outbreak shingles.Then, only debris from the spots has the virus.

Question 6

what is the difference between chickenpox and shingles?

Accepted Answer

Location: Chickenpox describes a generalized illness where the virus has circulated thru the body and comes to the skin surface as a later stage. On the skin surface the blisters come up and have living virus in them. Zoster is a reactivation of the virus from its hiding place in a nerve root and its physical location is limited to the skin area supplied by that nerve.The virus is the same.

Question 7

do people ever get shingles if they never had chickenpox?

Accepted Answer

No: Theoretically - no! but most people have had chickenpox w/out knowing it, so don't be surprised to develop them in your life.

Question 8

could i have shingles even if i have never had chickenpox?

Accepted Answer

Possibly: Studies show most adults have blood evidence of a prior cpx infection even if they were never diagnosed. They may have acquired the germ during their mothers pregnancy and  never knew it. Anyone with the germ in their system can have shingles at some point. I saw it in an 11 month old whose parent had no knowledge of a prior cpx infection.

Question 9

i have never had chickenpox before yet i have shingles... how?

Accepted Answer

Can happen: You were exposed to the virus, you probably had a subclinical infection, but you were infected, and the virus remained dormant in your body, flared up when it had the chance and you developed  shingles, hopefully it will be mild and you won't have it again

Question 10

is it possible to catch shingles from someone with chickenpox?

Accepted Answer

Shingles: No.  Lots of misinformation about shingles and chickenpox.  Shingles is just a reactivation of the chickenpox virus.  You can catch chicken pox from someone with shingles if you are not immune to the chicken pox, but not vice versa.    Nowadays, most infants are vaccinated at 12 months.  Adults can receive a booster (shingles vaccine) later in life.

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Doctor answers about:

Chickenpox from shingles

A member asked:

Can you tell me how high are my chances of developing chickenpox from someone with shingles?

A member asked:

Does chickenpox vaccine protect from shingles?

A member asked:

Do i have chickenpox or is it shingles?

A member asked:

Is it possible to have the shingles and chickenpox?

A member asked:

What is the disparity between chickenpox and shingles?

A member asked:

What is the difference between chickenpox and shingles?

A member asked:

Do people ever get shingles if they never had chickenpox?

A member asked:

Could i have shingles even if i have never had chickenpox?

A member asked:

I have never had chickenpox before yet i have shingles... how?

A member asked:

Is it possible to catch shingles from someone with chickenpox?

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