infant exposure to shingles affected person

Hi, my kid is 10 months old and I am very worried because she was exposed to shingles affected person. I would like to know what may happen to my baby and how serious that may be. If someone has similar experience I would be glad to hear. Thank you very much.

Hi, people who are affected with shingles are suffering from reactivation of herpes zoster virus. This virus causes smallpox in children and shingles in grown man who already had smallpox. Virus may be hibernated in the nerves of some person for a very long time till his immunity becomes weaker and then it may appear.

It causes chicken pox not small pox thats a different disease!

Shingles are common. They are indeed cause by the same herpes virus that causes chickenpox. Those who have been exposed to the virus commonly retain dormant virus in the nervous tissue. This dormant virus can be reactivated years later by a variety of triggers, the most common triggers being stress or immune suppression from some other cause. This usually happens in the 6th or 7th decade of life but can happen to younger people as well. It is possible to pass on the virus from exposed areas of the shingles rash, but cases of this are very rare. Most individuals in the US have been exposed to or immunized against this virus therefore have little to worry about. Those that are not immune could develop chickenpox from the virus.

This replication cycle is common to most herpes viruses and is similar to what happens with the herpes virus that causes cold sores as well. The virus is dormant in the nerves for a period of time then is reactivated by some trigger. You can pass the virus to another individual by exposure to an open infected sore.

You can't catch shingles from shingles but - through direct contact with the blisters - a person can catch chicken pox if they have never had chicken pox before.

Man, i'm glad someone caught that smallpox comment cause shingles is a mutation of chickenpox NOT smallpox!! We should be careful what we say if we aren't informed enough cause it could cause a real scare. I have an 8-yr-old who has shingles and has expoed my 6-week-old so I was concerned at first. Funny cause the 8-yr-old got mild chicken pox at 2-months-old from his then 6-yr-old sister (now 14). Just ironic that the timing is the same for this baby that it was for him as a baby. Now I know that the 6-week-old is only exposed to chicken pox cause obviously he's never had them. Better to get it over when they are too young to scratch!! I was afraid at first the baby would get shingles from shingles but now I know different. Shingles can look a lot uglier than chicen pox! Glad to know contact with blisters is main way for exposure with shingles. My son hasn't had a fever and his rash is on his scalp hidden by hair and throat and inside his ear (not visible outside)and red eye all on left side only. I haven't seen any other cases on the scalp.