i have shingles, what do i nee to do to protect my 10 yo daughter from getting them

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When people get shingles or hear well-nigh someone who has the condition, they oft worry about the contagiousness specially with regard to their children. Although your kid cannot go shingles from another person, they can get chickenpox. For this reason, it's of import to know how shingles spreads and how it causes chickenpox in children. Here's a closer look at the varicella-zoster virus.

How Shingles Spreads

If someone you know has shingles, you cannot catch shingles itself from them. Shingles are caused by the chickenpox virus, which has been fallow in their body ever since they had chickenpox. And then, y'all get shingles from your own chickenpox virus, not from someone else.

That said, shingles are nevertheless contagious and can transmit the chickenpox virus to susceptible people. Fortunately, classic localized shingles are not equally contagious equally chickenpox itself. Dissimilar chickenpox, shingles are non spread through droplets. You lot typically accept to accept directly contact with the shingles blisters for information technology to exist contagious.

That makes it much easier to avoid getting sick, which is important if you lot accept shingles and your child is as well young to get vaccinated and protected with a chickenpox vaccine. In general, if someone has shingles and tin can keep all of the zoster lesions well covered, then children won't have direct contact with them and shouldn't be at much risk.

Of class, the best mode to avoid getting chickenpox is to simply get vaccinated with the chickenpox vaccine. Some people worry almost the safety of the chickenpox vaccine, though, and wonder if information technology's responsible for the surge in shingles cases or a shingles epidemic. This speculation is simply another anti-vaccine myth that is used to scare parents away from vaccinating their kids and protecting them against vaccine-preventable diseases.

The tendency in rising shingles cases in adults began earlier we started vaccinating children in the United states. Plus, the trend in rise shingles cases in adults exists in other countries that do not routinely give kids the chickenpox vaccine.

If y'all accept had chickenpox and you're interested in protecting yourself, in that location are two shingles vaccines are available. In the U.S., Shingrix is the preferred vaccine for healthy people who are 50 and older.

How Shingles Cause Chickenpox

People who have not had chickenpox can catch the varicella-zoster virus if they have shut contact with a person who has shingles. According to the CDC, "The virus that causes shingles, varicella zoster virus, can spread from a person with agile shingles and cause chickenpox in someone who had never had chickenpox or received chickenpox vaccine."

The most mutual way to become chickenpox is "by touching or animate in the virus particles that come from chickenpox blisters," you lot besides can get chickenpox "through tiny droplets from infected people that become into the air after they breathe or talk." Fortunately, the droplet spread doesn't happen with shingles.

Although you should still take steps to avoid contact with the shingles blisters, someone who has had chickenpox or 2 doses of the chickenpox vaccine should be well protected if they take to be around someone with shingles. Here are some additional things you should know about the contagiousness of shingles.

• If your child is unvaccinated (and at least 12 months old) or has just had one dose of chickenpox vaccine (and it has been 3 months since their last dose), getting vaccinated inside 3 to 5 days of exposure to someone with shingles might subtract their risk of getting chickenpox.
• Symptoms of breakthrough chickenpox—getting sick after being vaccinated—are usually much milder than natural chickenpox infections.

If your child is exposed to someone with shingles, whether or non they accept been vaccinated, watch them for the development of chickenpox blisters over the next x to 21 days—the incubation menses for chickenpox.

Dangers of Chickenpox

Although complications from chickenpox are rare, infants, adolescents, and pregnant women are all at risk of complications if they get a serious instance of chickenpox. Likewise, people with compromised allowed systems, those on chemotherapy, and people who accept had transplants are at an elevated risk of complications. Some of complications associated with chickenpox include:

• Bacterial infections in the skin including Group A streptococcal infections
• Pneumonia
• Infection or inflammation of the brain
• Bleeding problems
• Bloodstream infections such every bit sepsis
• Aridity

Sometimes complications tin become so severe that the person will demand to exist hospitalized. Chickenpox can fifty-fifty lead to death in healthy people. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), many salubrious adults who died from chickenpox got the affliction their unvaccinated children. To protect your child from chickenpox, be sure yous follow the immunization schedule that your child'south doctor recommends.

Typically, children go their first dose of chickenpox vaccine they are 12 to 15 months old. The second dose of the chickenpox vaccine can exist given any time, equally long as information technology is at least iii months after the start dose, but it is typically given when kids are 4 to half dozen years onetime, simply before they start kindergarten.

A Word From Verywell

When it comes to shingles and chickenpox, the best way you can protect your child is to ensure y'all're following the immunization schedule your child's pediatrician recommends. If someone in your family unit does end up with shingles, the vaccination should protect them from developing any serious complications.

That said, if you're significant or if your kid is too young to be vaccinated exist certain you do caution and limit their exposure until the person no longer has shingles. If you have any questions nearly how to ensure you and your child are safe, talk to your child'southward pediatrician for advice.

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Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts inside our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more than about how we fact-check and go on our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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2. Centers for Illness Command and Prevention. Shingles (herpes zoster): transmission.

3. Massachusetts Section of Public Health Guide to Surveillance, Reporting, and Control. Chickenpox and shingles, section 1, almost the disease.

4. Hales CM, Harpaz R, Joesoef MR, Bialek SR. Exam of links betwixt herpes zoster incidence and childhood varicella vaccination.Ann Intern Med. 2013;159(xi):739–745. doi:x.7326/0003-4819-159-11-201312030-00006

5. Centers for Illness Command and Prevention. Chickenpox vaccination: what anybody should know.

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease of the week: chickenpox (varicella).

7. Centers for Illness Command and Prevention. Chickenpox (varicella): complications.

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Source: https://www.verywellfamily.com/is-shingles-contagious-2634655

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