Chook Me!

If i just received the chicken pox vaccine and my mother has had shingles, can it affect her?

I live with my mother and she's had shingles. I know chicken pox is contagious and she's already had the virus but If I develop a rash can this affect her?

Public Comments

1. It seems strange to me that they gave you the vaccine but maybe things have changed. When my kids got it the cut-off was 18 months old. Vaccines are injections of dead viruses that help your body build antibodies to a particular disease. If you react to the vaccine (which you probably won't) you may get blisters and they are contagious. Your mom already carries the same virus. She may or may not be affected by it. It depends on her immunity. Your best bet is to not scratch, wash your hands often, and wear a light long sleeved shirt and pants to keep the blisters covered. Have as little physical contact as possible with her.
2. If you do happen to shed any of the chickenpox virus from the vaccine, it will actually be good for your mother. Contact with the chickenpox virus about once every 5 years prevents shingles from occurring. Did you know that the shingles vaccine is just a very, very strong chickenpox vaccine? Shingles has become a lot more common since the chickenpox vaccine came into regular use in the United States in 1995. The vaccine has decreased the number of chickenpox cases, which is very bad for those who have already had it, because those people need occasional exposure to the virus to keep shingles from erupting.
3. No, it won't affect her. If she has had shingles it means that she had chicken pox sometime in the past, so the chicken pox virus is already in her body. These links explain how shingles works. http://hubpages.com/hub/ShinglesContagious http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/shingles/shingles-symptoms http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/shingles/DS00098/DSECTION=symptoms