Do not bring contagious chickenpox into the office! Go home and stay there! Fuck, don’t people think about this shit?
Not til they develop the accompanying rash, usually. Which can be a few days. I’m curious; did this person know it was Varicella?
Apparently the rash is what spurred her to go to the doctor this morning. After which, she came in and blithely announced it.
shakes head…unreal. Chicken Pox in adults can be very dangerous. And she’s knowingly exposing others in the office who may not be immune to that danger? Are there any pregnant women in your office? If so, I’d scream, and loudly. Bitch should be fired.
I don’t have chicken pox immunity and I’m always afraid of contracting it from someone.
I wouldn’t have been pleased.
Monstro,
Hie thee to a doctor and get the Varicella vaccination. This goes for all of you people who are adults that have never had it.
My husband’s first wife DIED of it, mmmkay? She was 22.
I’ve never had chickenpox so I’m very likely to have a serious infection if I catch it now. I would have gone ballistic. What a fuckwit…
How about don’t vacinate any kids and let them all get it?
I didn’t get chix pox till age 30. I don’t recommend it. I didn’t sleep for a week for all the burning itching ecch.
Scariest part was, I presented at my local ER and was told it probably wasn’t chix pox - on account of my age. I shudder to think…Anyway I very quickly asked for a 2nd opinion.
I then was prescribed Zovirax. It’ll supposedly kill anything. Ask your doctor if it’s right for you.
are you nuts? even in children, it can be deadly. vaccinate every one who hasdn’t had it
Some people simplify the whole vaccination issue entirely too far. When my daughter was homeschooling, she was exposed to a child carrying the Tb virus because that child’s parents don’t believe in vaccinations. Kiddo tested positive on a skin test. She went through six months of antibiotics. She’ll always test positive on a skin test, she’ll always need a chest x-ray to prove she doesn’t have Tuberculosis and is not an active carrier. All because a bunch of idiots think that immunizations are a bad thing, and we should simply allow the majority of the population to be exposed to virulent diseases. Not realizing just how devastating those diseases can truly be. There’s a reason those vaccines were developed, and it had nothing to do with putting cash in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies.
Well, there’s a bit of oversimplification here too. In the US, nobody vaccinates for the tuberculosis bacterium (not a virus). There IS a vaccine (BCG), but it is not used - there are side effects, and the efficacy is not as high as is desired.
Never mind chickenpox, do you know what mumps does to an adult male? I’m thinking most guys aren’t too cool with “swollen, tender, inflamed testicles.” Yeah, people really need to keep their infectious shit at home.
A while ago I had Shingles which is a skin rash caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. I thought it was poison ivy, but since it itched SO bad, I decided to check it with a doctor. Imagine my surprise when he told me that not only was it not poison ivy, but that it was Contagious.
I worked in a very diverse company. We had people from all over the world. I realized right away that any one of them might not have the vacinations for this, and stayed home until it was gone. I think it took 2+ weeks to clear. I worked from home to make sure no one else got sick.
Companies need to have policies in place for stuff like this. I was lucky, in that my company allowed me to take the time, with pay, to heal. Does your company have a policy for cases like this? I couldn’t imagine taking those 2 weeks without pay.
Many viral diseases are maximally contagious prior to clinical manifestations, and particularly prior to the infected patient developing a rash.
It’s an intuitive response to approach infectious diseases by creating policies that try to avoid exposure to them. At a broad level it’s not very effective. What happens is that an increasingly large population becomes susceptible because they’ve never been exposed, but because it’s so hard to isolate the diseased individuals, eventually they do get exposed, often when they are more vulnerable (otherwise ill; older; on chemotherapy–whatever).
An alternate strategy (aside from getting appropriate vaccinations) is to get exposed to as many diseases as possible during childhood so that, for instance, you do not end up with chicken pox on your wedding day. I will confess it’s not a popular approach, even with folks in Medicine. My own childrens’ private school stopped asking me for medical advice when one of their pupils got chicken pox in 4th grade. I recommended she immediately cough on every other kid in the school. (Pre-vaccine days, obviously)
One might consider that Americas had an (inadvertent) avoidance strategy for many infectious disease prior to the arrival of Europeans. When the Europeans and their new germs arrived, the immunologically naive native populations really suffered.
Not every infectious disease can be handled so simplistically of course. TB, Polio, Smallpox and others are much more problematic, especially if they are particularly virulent illness.
If you’ve an adult who has never had chicken pox, I’d also suggest you talk with your doctor about getting the vaccination. Also, if you were given the vaccination as a child, you might talk to your doctor about getting a booster. The jury is still out as to how effective it is.
This article describes the cost of the phenomenon of the working sick. It’s “presenteeism” - the flip side of “absenteeism.”
Frank, did you narc her out? If not, you need to. That’s bullshit.
By the way, I think it’s German measles that is dangerous to pregnant women, isn’t it?
Absolutely get the vaccine if you’re an adult that hasn’t yet had chicken pox. The vaccine came out about a year after I had the pox as an adult. It was horrible. I was so sick, I could only manage to get downstairs to feed my cats twice a day, after which I’d have to sit for an hour or so before I could make it back upstairs. I’m sure I had pneumonia, but my idiot doctor didn’t even check me with a stethoscope when I went to him with hundreds of pox. This was my second visit. I first went to him feeling ill, with a sore on my leg, never having had chicken pox and having just had a visitor with a kid with it who cooked the kid in the jacuzzi and spread pox vapors throughout the house. He said I likely just had a regular virus and sometimes viruses cause sores :rolleyes: When I returned, covered in pox and so weak I had to get the spouse to carry my purse because I couldn’t, doc finally gave me Zovirax. Once I finally started to recover from the pox, I got neuralgia all down my left side. Took me almost two months to get over it all. It really can be horrible when you’re an adult.
I’m amazed that it’s possible to make it to adulthood without catching chicken pox. Isn’t it a right of passage, that the whole kindergarten class gets it?
Actually, I specifically remember that once Emily had it, almost everyone had a “play date” with her at her house, so they’d get it too. Convenient time. End of the school year.