shingles

lare73
lare73 Member Posts: 154
edited 13. Oct 2010, 13:46 in My child has arthritis
hi all,

the school have just rung me to say a case of shingles was confirmed today, it is only 1 pupil at the moment and not in tom's class, do i need to do anything??
i have emailed the rheumy nurse so waiting for a reply, he is at school and fingers crossed has not come into contact with anyone contagious, think its fair to assume it will not be isolated as the child with shingles was at school yesterday :shock:

on a positive note, i am waiting for my new sofa coming today. it has recliners and lumbar support, not told tom as its a surprise :o

clare x

Comments

  • worriedmum
    worriedmum Member Posts: 72
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi Clare,
    You're doing the right thing. The rheumy nurse should guide you through what, if anything needs to be done. They will use all the informatino you provide to risk stratisfy and treat Tom accordingly. This happened to us recently, 3 days after my daughter started in reception class and another child got chicken-pox. We rang the hospital and they tested her blood to establish if she had any antibodies of her own which would protect her and she didn't. Since she had spent 3 days in a classroom with this child, they decided she was at significant enough risk to need treatment. We had to take her in for an injection into her thigh, called Varicella Immunoglobulin. This protects them for 3 weeks and minimises the risk of them getting a bad strain of the virus, following contact, thoguh it doesn't guarentee they won't get any symptoms at all.
    The injection was quite painful unfortunatley, as they needed to give her quite a large volume into the muscle and needed her so stay really still so it could be injected slowly. Didn't go down too well as you can imagine, but at least it stopped her getting sick. She didn't have any symptoms at all!
    How old is Tom?

    I think they take this quite seriouossly with MTX kids so I'm sure they'll get back to you soon. I hope everything works out well.
    Sam.
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Yup, contact your rheumatology team. This has the potential to be serious so nip anything in the bud. Don't panic, tho. It's good you are aware of the problem, the school has done the right thing. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • andylambs
    andylambs Member Posts: 71
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Agree with everyone else see what the rheumy nurse says. To hopefully ease your mind, Shingles is only contagious if you touch the actual ooze from the spots (and you'd catch chickenpox not shingles). So it's unlikely Tom has been exposed.

    Of course, if anyone else in the school touched the ooze they are probably now incubating chickenpox but they won't be infectious yet. You might need to keep Tom at home for a few days around the time the CP would be appearing to make sure he doesn't come in contact with it.

    Good luck, let us know how you get on.
    Andy

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