Comments on: You Can’t Get Shingles From Shingles

By: Juls60

Juls60 — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 23:46:24 +0000

I laugh that they are now saying you can’t catch it from another person who has it. 35 years ago, when I was 21 I ‘caught’ it from a co-worker who I shared a register with. My doctor confirmed I caught it from her. Had a double whammy case, all the way around my middle. Doc say’s it was the worse case he had ever seen. I think they are trying to say it cannot be spread from one person to another now is so they can push the Shingles Shot.

By: PCEvert

PCEvert — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 14:59:20 +0000

I know I’m coming in on this a little late, but its the only information I could find regarding catching shingles from someone.

My daughter’s boyfriend (age 19) just was diagnosed with Shingles two days ago. His stepfather had shingles a couple weeks ago. The virus was spread from one to the other. The thought is that his stepfather laid on the couch with his shingles uncovered so that he could bare the pain a little better, unknowingly exposing the virus and thus spreading to his stepson from the couch.

This does happen and the medical world should realize this and stop saying that it is not contagious. How can we report these cases? I think there should be some sort of report of these medical miracles

By: INflea

INflea — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:33:04 +0000

@ dj___HELP: I don’t think you could have been vaccinated as a kid, since chickenpox vaccines didn’t come into use until the 1995. If you had chickenpox as a kid, you should be fine. If you didn’t you could get chickenpox from someone with Shingles. What you describe doesn’t sound like either though, since it should get worse over a week or two then get better, not one or two sores that occur every other week.

By: INflea

INflea — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:28:42 +0000

Your post is quite amusing, and illustrates just how confusing this whole situation is. As a public health worker, I came across chickenpox & shingles occasionally. However, now that my 29 year old husband has just been diagnosed with it I am doing more research. It is supposed to go like this:
You get chickenpox as a child, it lays dormant them can come back out later in life as shingles. The lesions are what is contagious. If you are exposed to a lesion & have never had chickenpox, you can get chickenpox. If you are exposed to a lesion & have had chickenpox, nothing should happen.

In reality even though overall cases of shingles are going down, the pattern of the disease is changing. Over the least 15 years, it is occurring in younger people, and in these cases it does not seem to have the longterm complications that it can in elderly people. I think the bottom line is that doctors used to think they had the chickenpox/shingles relationship figured out, and now it looks like maybe they don’t.

My personal theory is that you get chickenpox, it lays dormant, when you are re-exposed to the virus later it can express itself as shingles. I base this on my personal experience seeing outbreaks of shingles in younger populations.

So the takeaway message is: Vaccine for chickenpox & shingles= good. The vaccine is lowering the number of cases, which is good, it just might also be changing how some cases present themselves which is confusing. I think doctors will be rethinking shingles over the next few years, but right now they are a little confused too.

By: dj___HELP

dj___HELP — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:40:22 +0000

WHY CAN’T DOCTORS TELL PEOPLE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO CATCH THIS VIRUS, HAD I HAD THIS INFO, I WOULD HAVE STOP WORKING FOR THIS WOMAN EARLIER ON.

By: dj___HELP

dj___HELP — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:35:44 +0000

Okay, if someone can help me with this, I really appreciate your time. In March, I was a cleaning lady for a woman who told me she just came off of Shingles. She told me that it wasn’t contageous, a month later I started having some signs of a spot here or spot there…that kind of looked like red pimple, but nothing was in it except water. I immediately felt that something wasn’t right. I’ve had one on my face every few weeks, or every other week sometimes, it does look like a chicken pox.

Then on the other hand, I’ve had a tiny (strip like) rash of translucent bubble bumps, very tiny on one side of my face…is this Shingles. This client was one of those annoying clients who I ended up quitting after four months….i AM SO LIvid, KNOWING that I might have caught this from her…then again, she may not have been given proper information just based on reading your story. Jesus F Christ…what’s the answer??? Can you get Shingles from someone or not, I’ve been vaccinated since I was a kid…I’m in my late thirties. I’m so upset. Sorry for the rant…and thanks if anyone has info on this. Cheerss

By: » Phoebe Turns Fwee. I Mean, Three. Mothers of Brothers: All about life with boys…and life in general

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:38:18 +0000

[...] fingers in a door, and do a triple gainer down the basement stairs without shedding a tear. You had Shingles for crying out loud, and all you said during your week long quarantine was : “Hey Momma, ‘dis [...]

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:29:08 +0000

I think I caught shingles from you, Jess. When our feet touched at Yoga on the Parkway, I felt a shingley sort of jolt.

By: MelanieO

MelanieO — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:25:57 +0000

I’m with Emily. However, I’m also green with envy, although not for shingles. As a native upstate New Yorker now living in eastern Massachusetts, I miss Wegman’s!

By: Jessie

Jessie — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:44:58 +0000

Phil & Emma went to the shore. Poor Phoebe was stuck with me for two days. We finally got so stir crazy that I covered her in clothes & went to Wegmans. She looked like she was from Amish country.