| Re: Pregnant Women Around Shingles?
I was exposed to shingles at 16 weeks or so. I work in a hospital and a patient that I cared for tested positive for shingles the next day after I worked with her. Generally speaking pregnant women should not be around anyone with shingles or chicken pox, as it can cause birth defects if you get the illness. If you already have had the chicken pox then you should'nt have a problem, but I'd still stay away from an infected person. You get shingles from already having the chicken pox before in the past. The Varcella Virus stays latent in your system after having chicken pox and can flare up later in life and cause a case of the shingles. You can get Chicken pox from someone who has shingles if you are not immune, but you cannot shingles from a shingles infected person, as it is only a secondary infection of chicken pox.
Any how since I already had the chicken pox, I didn't have anything to worry about after my exposure. Hope that helps!
Last edited by feb06baby; 01-07-2006 at 08:04 AM.
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