What if my baby gets chicken pox?

Question

I have a nine-month-old baby who has been exposed to chicken pox.

All the articles talk of vaccines from 12 months on. No-one mentions anywhere about babies under 12 months and the implications.

How serious can it be for such an infant? She is healthy and strong but if she gets chickenpox how bad could it be?

Answer

Chicken pox (varicella) is a common childhood illness which first shows itself as small blistering spots which rapidly increase in number and are often accompanied by a fever and general malaise.

The incubation period (the time from exposure to the disease to developing the first symptoms) is 14 to 16 days. Once the rash has scabbed over, the child is no longer infective.

The spots can occur anywhere and are often most irritating when they affect the genital area, the scalp and the eyes.

Complications of chicken pox are rare in healthy children but occasionally there can be inflammation of part of the brain responsible for balance (cerebellum), which results in unsteadiness (ataxia). Full recovery normally occurs.

The most severe complications are usually reserved for children on treatments that affect their ability to fight off infection (immunosuppressive therapy) and it is in these children that anti-viral medicines, for example aciclovir, are indicated.

Although it is not impossible for babies to get chicken pox, it is more common in toddlers upwards and no other treatment than calamine lotion for the rash and paracetamol for the fever is usually needed.

The most common complication of chicken pox is not for the child but for its parents or grandparents as it is possible to reactivate the chicken pox virus (which lies dormant in the spinal column after an infection with it) by further exposure to an active case.

This results in shingles, which is an illness with a painful, blistering rash which follows the pathway of the spinal nerve in which the chickenpox virus was lying.

Having said that, most cases of shingles that I see as a GP arise spontaneously, without any contact with chickenpox.

It is not possible to get chicken pox from a case of shingles - it only occurs the other way round. It might help for you to talk to your GP or health visitor about your worries.

Yours sincerely

The Medical Team

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