shingles

[miasmama966]

Can someone carry shingles to work if his wife has them at home? Is it a threat to someone who is pregnant?

[tinkerbell1124]

Well IF you've had chicken pox you usually won't get shingles. My guess though would be it's possible but not very likely to happen.

[therese101]

To add to what mrspincince has said my doctor told me when I had shingles for me to be able to pass it on to someone else they would physically have to touch my rash.

[MrsPincince]

Any person who has shingles should also make an effort to avoid pregnant women, infants, and children until their blisters have fully scabbed. Shingles, or chickenpox is contagious to anyone who has never had it. Since shingles develops from the reactivation of chickenpox, it is impossible to get shingles from someone else’s outbreak. However, people who haven’t previously had chickenpox can contract it from coming into contact with someone who has shingles, since the fluid from the blisters can carry the virus to others. Even though shingles isn’t as contagious as chickenpox, it still poses a mild threat to those who have never had it or the chicken pox vaccine.  Although it is not possible to spread shingles to others, the chickenpox virus can be spread to anyone who has never had it. This means that anyone who decreased immunity due to illness, chemotherapy, or old age is susceptible, and should consider anyone with shingles to be contagious to them. Newborn babies are also at a greater risk, as they have little defense against such an invasive virus. Women who are pregnant are also at risk for the virus, and could pass it to their unborn child if they contract shingles during pregnancy. However, while chickenpox is very contagious and most often transmitted by airborne particles, shingles is more localized and most commonly only transferred via direct contact with open sores. Therefore, the risk of catching chickenpox from shingles is relatively low.

Sources:
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/78/95860.htm
http://www.parkhurstexchange.com/qa/A.php?q=/qa/Infection/2004-06-05.qa
http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/When_is_shingles_no_longer_contagious