We are in a bit of a quandry here. My wife’s 2 year old cousin has come down with a serious case of the chicken pox. Yesterday she was taken to the hospital because it had started to effect her walking. We have a one year old child. If we were in the states, I wouldn’t be terribly concerned since I could just call the doctor or whatever, but we are currently visiting the other side of the planet in NZ. If our daughter were to come down with the chicken pox while we are here, it would be horrible. I can’t immagine she would be allowed on the plane to get back home, not to mention the fight with insurance to pay for it. On the other hand, we aren’t likely to come back and visit my wife’s family anytime soon, so the pressure to visit is pretty high.
Will it be safe for us to visit them in the next week?
You’re sounding kinda panicky, take a deep breath, you’re only talking about chicken pox. First off, you never mentioned how much contact your infected cousin had with your one year old child, or who you’re worried you will infect. (P.S.- They will probably let a kid w/ chicken pox on a plane, unless it’s super obvious. )
I’m pretty sure there is a vaccine nowadays against chicken pox. If you’re that concerned about infection, maybe get the vaccine, then keep an eye out for another 3-5 days in case it kicked in before the vaccine took hold.
Lastly, chicken pox is not such a bad thing to come down with as a child. I got 'em at 5 years old (I think I was the vector for my elementary school that year, lol), never had to visit a doctor. I just took oatmeal baths and dealt with my parents yelling at me for scratching too much. From what I’ve read, it’s way better to have chicken pox early that after adolescence.
I could be wrong but IIRC when I was a kid parents would let their kids contract Chicken Pox.
Too late in the night to call my mom so I cannot verify. Plus at 42 I am old enough that things may have been dealt with differently back then.
That said I swear I recall being told that when one child got Chicken Pox the parents did not freak and actually let their other kids get it. Reason being as a kid it is not that big a deal but as an adult it can be. Thus it was deemed better to let all your kids get it, deal with it and then it is behind you.
Again I want to note this was 40(ish) years ago and being the youngest in a much older family I may have been fed “wisdom” that made sense in the 1920’s (my grandma was born in 1898). Things may be very different now. Nevertheless I am guessing from that anecdote Chicken Pox was not considered all that serious (worrisome, pain in the ass but not life or death).
Small Pox on the other hand…
ETA: I would be surprised if she was allowed on a plane. As I understand it Chicken Pox is not cool for adults who have never had it in their lives.
Chickenpox usually isn’t all that bad. It is possible the child has a bad case, or has a secondary bacterial infection. Course of the infection is usually up to 10 days.
Anyone with Chickenpox is contagious if they still have any vesicles leaking fluid. The fluid is filled with live virii. The virus is hellishly contagious. If you travel on a plane, in a car, or similar, with someone shedding virus, and you are not immune, you will probably get it. For adults it is a really miserable disease, and for early pregnancy a significant risk. Anyone who is contagious and travels on a plane should be publicly flogged. You are contagious two days before becoming symptomatic.
If your cousin’s child no longer has any vesicles, she should be safe to visit. Nasty scabbed over sores are safe, but no leaking fluid. The saving factor is the incubation period. About two weeks before sores appear. If you visit, and your duaghter does get infected, she won’t actually come down with it, or become infectious until well after you get home.
Don’t be traveling if your kid has it. It might be a lesser problem then some of the other diseases you can encounter, but that still doesn’t mean you should travel with the kid, that would be very irresponsible. Sometimes stuff happens that ruins your travel plans and this is one of those. Chicken Pox
That’s probably also an extra problem though. Unless the kid’s parents and other contacts have all had it at some point in the past, they may be infected. Infected people are contagious before they develop the spots.
We haven’t visited yet, we are simply trying to decide if it is safe to visit. I’m not concerned about chicken pox except that I’m halfway around the world. Despite assurances, I find it very unlikely that a child with obvious chicken pox would be allowed on a twelve hour flight. It seems a bit odd to suggest that chicken pox is no big deal when I mentioned the two year olds neurological difficulties that resulted from her chicken pox. I do know that this is an extremely rare complication.
How long will the virus survive outside the body? Is it safe to go to their home? We likely wont make it to that part of the island for another week.
Minor correction - shingles is reactivation of a past, usually childhood, chicken pox infection. The virus stays dormant in the nerve root until the opportunity comes up to come back out - age, stress, whatever. It travels out along the nerve to the skin and can hurt like Hell. We may see more in coming years as the main way that adults boosted their immunity to the virus (and thus kept it dormant longer) was with re-exposure to the natural disease - usually from their kids. The so-called “environmental booster effect” now occurs much more rarely. Primary infection with chicken pox as an adult is bad though - that’s true. It can even be fatal.
It is not the end of the world to get chicken pox as a child. Complications can occur but very rarely. The least uncommon is a bacterial ionfection of the pocks - getting a fever a few days into it and pocks getting angry looking are the big flags for that concern. The worst likely possibility would be letting the airline know or having the flight back scheduled around when the kid might show up with it or after for the week. (No you should not go on a plane with chicken pox.) Not great to be stuck down under - although you could do worse than being trapped there.
If you are concerned about it do not go in the house. Air borne and highly contagious. Not like influenza droplets which fall down within 3 feet - these buggers stay in the air for hours and float all over through the air supply.
Chicken pox for kids really isn’t that big a deal. That said, there is nothing in life that doesn’t contain some element of bigger risk. Just about every disease it is possible to get has some form of rare complication. You have a good chance of carrying meningococcal bacteria in your throat right now. That bacteria can lead to a swift and nasty death. But you don’t get stressed about it because it is a very rare complication.
If your daughter gets Chickenpox, do not travel. It has nothing to do with being allowed on if it is obvious she has it or not. If you know she has it, it is simply unethical, and appallingly self centred to even consider setting foot on a plane. You place at risk the unborn child of any early term pregnant woman on the plane, and will inflict an utterly miserable couple of weeks on any susceptible adult on the plane. Like I wrote, anyone travelling with Chickenpox should be publicly flogged. (This goes for active Shingles too.)
If you know that you are leaving to go home within a week of visiting them, you could reasonably visit, simply because even if your daughter (or you) became infected, you won’t come down with the disease, or become contagious, until after you get home.
If your cousin’s child still has open vesicles, she is infections. If they are all scabbed over she probably isn’t. Given the time span you give (another week) she is probably going to be OK to visit. If her parents are going to come done with it, they will before you get there too. So, you are probably OK. Otherwise, arrange to meet for dinner is a restaurant or something, and leave the kid at home.
Basically, keep your daughter away from the infected girl until the pustules have dried up and faded.
Chicken pox travels from person to person, but not through a third party. An immune person does not spread the disease. Assuming the infected girl’s parents have had chicken pox in the past, they can visit without your daughter getting sick.
Well this is really the entire point of the post. I’m not terribly concerned about chicken pox. I’m concerned about being trapped down under having to fork over another four grand for a flight home.
Why do you add that bit about shingles? Shingles is scarcely contagious and then only by direct contact with the lesions or being extremely close to an uncovered lesion that get scratched open so that one breathes the briefly aerosolized particles. If covered shingles presents virtually no risk to others.
Yeah, true. I was really reacting to a specific event, where a friend of mine insisted on taking a long distance plane journey when she was suffering. Nothing like as contageous, but pity the poor person sitting next to her for 24 hours. She might not have put as large a number of poeple at risk, but contageous she was, and the people she sat next to were at real risk. I still regard that as unethical behaviour.
