AIBU? - Out with a child with chickenpox

MawBroonsback I do actually know (and work with) many of the nhs guidelines and suspect my current medical knowledge may be a tad more up to date than yours? Please stop trying to justify your earlier posts.

In order to ensure my knowledge and research is correct and up to date I often refer to NICE guidelines, which in case you aren’t aware are “based on current evidence-based national guidance and advice to improve health and social care in England” and written with considerably more knowledge and research than you or I have accessed! They do state that - “Immunocompromised people with chickenpox are at increased risk of developing complications (such as pneumonia, encephalitis, hepatitis, and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy) as a result of varicella zoster virus affecting their internal organs [CDC, 2016].”
There are also guidelines for other category of person with ref. to Chickenpox!

I can give you a link to these extremely important guidelines, which every health practitioner in England should refer to, if you wish??

Maw, Accept that you have been wrong and given out poor advice, a much better trait than continuing to try to push your flawed ideals.
Even I can be wrong occasionally, though not on this occasion!

I don't think taking a child with a highly contagious disease into a public place is a great idea! It would just take coughing or sneezing to spread it about and as many posters have said there are various groups who could be very seriously affected by the illness. When my youngest got CP, my young daughter who was receiving treatment had to go to hospital to get 2 painful immunoglobulin injections, one in each thigh to protect her. I got CP when I was in my teens from my dad who had shingles and I was totally covered in them. Not pleasant.

I would have considered chickenpox a mild, childhood illness, but not any more. I know of a case of a 2 year old who got it, and then developed encephalitis. He nearly died, and was left severely brain-damaged. There is also the scarring, usually on face. Many people are left with one or 2 scars, even if they don't scratch.

The best remedy is vaccination. Even though it's not currently part of vaccine regime in UK and Ireland, it is in some other countries, and can be got if paid for privately, which is what I've recommended for my grandchildren. The reasons not to give it routinely are a bit unclear -it doesn't have particularly bad side effects. It seems to be related to some findings that repeated exposure to the virus as an adult may reduce likelihood of shingles. However, the balance of evidence is that vaccination is a good idea. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150811103555.htm

CDC is the US department of health- not the UK.
Pregnant women are not at risk if they have had chickenpox or shingles.
You can’t catch shingles from chickenpox.
CP is contagious from 48 hours before the rash appears- you may be in contact with it and not know.
Sensible precautions should be taken against all microbes, such as washing hands after using public transport, but if we worried about every chance encounter we would be going about in a constant state of anxiety.

Here in Denmark it is measles that is being seen again, even although most children have been inoculated against it.

Perhaps mumps will be next. I have unhappy memories of having mumps for the first time when I was 27.

Years ago when my sister's children were small, she and BIL came to visit our parents one summer. Both children contracted chicken pox while on that holiday.

I who had had it as a child, caught it again and the rash was horrendous. Worse, a lady we had known since we were born and who was dying of cancer that summer caught it too and managed to infect an entire oncological dept. of the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow.

We were never sure where my nieces contracted the infection, but my sister said she had had both girls with her on a bus where a small child was out in a rash.

You can give your child fresh air in a garden if they would enjoy it. It is only a week to keep them away. Suppose you are out and your child needs the loo, it would be very irresponsible to take them to a public one

One year-olds in a buggy or prom generally use nappies- not public loos! .....

Tillybelle

The chickenpox vaccine is not part of the routine UK childhood vaccination programme because chickenpox is usually a mild illness, particularly in children. There's also a worry that introducing chickenpox vaccination for all children could increase the risk of chickenpox and shingles in adults
www.nhs.uk › childrens-health

Chicken pox is dangerous even to non-immunocompromised adults, and even more so to pregnant women. I was having to look after 5 children when my friend went down with it and so ill she was out of action for two weeks. Around the same time (obviously a chicken pox outbreak) another friend got it in the first three months of pregnancy, and her baby was born blind, doctors confirmed this was due to the chicken pox.

Why would you even think of putting people at risk? If you knew you had caused a mother's child to be born blind, how would you feel?

You can give your child fresh air in a garden if they would enjoy it. It is only a week to keep them away. Suppose you are out and your child needs the loo, it would be very irresponsible to take them to a public one.....

Chucky. I sympathise with your frustrations.

I hope what I have posted from the CDC: Centre For Disease Control and Prevention webpage about "Chicken pox Parties" especially will help everyone to understand the Official Government Medical Viewpoint.

That is; a contagious person with chicken pox should be avoided. Trying to spread chicken pox from one child to another should be avoided. It can be life-threatening and we do not know which children might be at risk of severe symptoms. The best protection is vaccination.

Chucky Sat 01-Jun-19 13:11:18
^Also in your comment to Jura, “do you jura think that with our medical background I would ever put anybody at risk.”
Your comments alone on here, minimising the risks, may put someone at risk^

Hardly

The chickenpox vaccine is not part of the routine UK childhood vaccination programme because chickenpox is usually a mild illness, particularly in children. There's also a worry that introducing chickenpox vaccination for all children could increase the risk of chickenpox and shingles in adults
www.nhs.uk › childrens-health

fizzers
You are right.

The CDC - Centres For Disease Control and Prevention say www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/about/transmission.html

"In the past, some parents participated in “chickenpox parties” to intentionally expose their unvaccinated children to a child with chickenpox in hopes that they would get the disease. CDC strongly recommends against hosting or participating in these events. Chickenpox can be serious and can lead to severe complications and death, even in healthy children. There is no way to tell in advance how severe your child’s symptoms will be. So it is not worth taking the chance of exposing your child to someone with the disease. The best way to protect infants and children against chickenpox is to get them vaccinated."

and: "A person with chickenpox is contagious beginning 1 to 2 days before rash onset until all the chickenpox lesions have crusted (scabbed)."

Also in your comment to Jura, “do you jura think that with our medical background I would ever put anybody at risk.”
Your comments alone on here, minimising the risks, may put someone at risk!

Totally irresponsible - this happened to me when a friend brought her child out with chicken pox which I hadn't had as a child. Two weeks later I came out in a rash and I was very ill - those spots get everywhere. It took me months to recover and I was only 32 at the time.....

MawBroonsback
I only quoted that which you said!! In this case what you said is very clearly wrong.

You started your original post with “Oh here we go again, bring out the handbell and intone “Unclean, unclean” which to most people would look like YOU don’t think it is an issue and perhaps having a go at the original poster for being unreasonable?

You may know a bit about immunosuppression however your comment that Paw was not affected does not mean someone else may be seriously affected. Both my dd and dh are immunosuppressed, my husband after transplantation. My friend, who “had” a son who was immunosuppressed and died when he was 21 after contracting Chickenpox, certainly would not have taken your comments well!

You are a gransnetter of some standing, therefore please do NOT just shrug off something like this to others as “Of course everybody can come out with a scare story.”

I quote from the end of your last post — “So I would be grateful not to be demonised with suggestions that I don’t know what I am talking about.”
Over your posts on this thread, you have shown that you do perhaps know something about immunosuppression, with regard to your late dh, but you very clearly are not an expert and understand this topic as a whole!

Therefore please DO NOT accuse me of demonising you when, with respect, in this case you have been shown to be factually incorrect!!!

pregnant women are not the only ones who need to avoid children’s. diseases. Any one with a low immune system can be affected. My Grandson has Cystic Fibrosis and infections such as these can be life threatening. 44 yrs ago my baby son almost died of chicken pox. No one should treat these things casually.

Goodness such a lot of scare stories! I’ve just looked up the NICE website, and it states that a pregnant woman who had had CP or shingles is not at risk. cks.nice.org.uk/chickenpox
I don’t suppose a short visit to a cafe will have put anyone at risk, but I wouldn’t have done it. Certainly a walk in the park will have been fine. Most of us trundle along quite happily being exposed to all sorts of things, especially if we use public transport, go out to places where there are other people....lead a normal life!

I’m out - do you jura think that with our medical background I would ever put anybody at risk?

If the child passed it on to a pregnant woman it cause harm to her unborn child and disabilities . The trouble in today world , people are selfish and only think of them selfs .

Poor child. Also I know a man who caught cp from his son ànd ended up in intensive care with encephalitis and was never the same again.

So yes, invite children into your home with the full understanding and approval of the parents - but do NOT EVER impose chickenpox on the population at large, until the spots have all dried up.

So so wrong- people with lowered immunity can die of chickenpox, and shingles can be really severe and have lasting consequences.

I take your point Chucky I suppose I had in mind that there are many many more pregnant women around especially in the social circle of young mums whose child may have chickenpox than those on immunosuppressants. Reproof accepted.
My youngest daughter was also part of a 5 year drugs trial to suppress her immune system in a research project on Psoriatic Arthritis, and to be fair, she was very much in our mind when my middle daughter’s 2year old son came out in chickenpox. She also had to lead a normal life including daily commuting into central London as well as long haul flights to the Far East on business.
DH was dead by then so it did not apply to him but as I said, a year earlier he somehow avoided infection when DGD came out in chickenpox just a matter of hours after seeing him in hospital.
I would reiterate that taking my grandson out to the park in his buggy in no way put any vulnerable members of society at any risk. Of course we were not in close contact with anybody but better to entertain him in the fresh air and help take his mind off his “pops” than hunker down indoors.
Frankly I feel my common sense is being called into question here.
Of course everybody can come out with a scare story, but he bottom line is that it is better to get something like chickenpox out of the way before the school years than to avoid it at all costs and then catch it as an adult, which seems perfectly obvious.
20 years of being on immunosuppressants does teach one a lot about avoiding infection and the basic common sense precautions one can take while still having a normal life, commuting or going out to work.
So I would be grateful not to be demonised with suggestions that I don’t know what I am talking about.

Sure you have to have had chickenpox to develop shingles at any time. Such an ignorant and inconsiderate thing to do. I was looking after GD who was 3 and developed chickenpox. I had to have it confirmed for nursery so had GP appointment. Wasn't allowed to go into mainstream waiting area but was kept in a little area at end of corridor. GP came out and did the necessary. No wide contact allowed in case of cross infection particularly in relation to anyone who may be pregnant. Your DS etc deserved all you told them.