Shingles despite chickenpox | How contagious is shingles?

Shingles despite chickenpox

Normally, people who have already contracted chickenpox or been vaccinated against varicella in their lifetime have sufficient antibodies. They therefore have sufficient immunity to the varicella zoster virus and can fend off the virus on contact with someone suffering from shingles. However, the immunity can decrease over the years. This means that despite having gone through a chickenpox infection, you can no longer fend off the virus on contact and reactivation, shingles, occurs. For this reason, a vaccination against shingles has been available for a few years for people over 50 years of age.

Is shingles contagious if there are no blisters?

In general, shingles carries a much lower risk of infection than chickenpox. In contrast to chickenpox, infection does not occur via the air, but through light contact with an infected person. Infection occurs only via the secretion fluid of the blisters.

Even if there are no vesicles in the infected person, an infection is not 100% impossible. Unnoticed vesicles or small, barely recognizable vesicles can also produce small amounts of secretion. There may therefore still be viruses on the skin that are sufficient to cause infection. Except for direct, close physical contact, the probability of infection is very low.

Am I contagious when I take medication?

By taking the antiviral drugs in case of shingles, the viral load is slowly reduced. Especially at the beginning of the therapy there is still a possibility of infection. As the therapy progresses and is successful, the probability of infection decreases further.

The drugs themselves do not promote infection. Even the vaccination cannot lead to an infection of other people. The vaccination only involves small inactivated parts of the original pathogen, which cannot cause shingles either in the vaccinated person or in other contact persons.

Can I get a sick note so that I don’t get infected?

In general, it is unusual to be on sick leave for fear of being infected by a colleague. In case of infectious diseases, the person concerned is obliged to stay away from work by himself. In a job without physical contact, an infection with shingles is very unlikely. For risk groups, such as pregnant women, sick leave can still be justified. In the medical profession, for example, pregnant women may not treat infectious patients.