Pregnant and exposed to shingles

[Anonymous]

Ladies
I am 37 weeks and was in the same room with a person who had shingles. I did not touch the person but I spoke with him and took a piece of paper from him. It was his 6th day with shingles, and I believe they were all crusted (no weeping as he said, they were on his forehead). He did not know they were shingles until later that day and he let me know right away. I am not immune to chicken pox and fearing to catch it.

I read that shingles are not transmitted via air (not respiratory as opposed to real chicken pox), and the person is not cantagious after the blisters cover up with crust. The websites claim that the only way to get chicken pox from shingles is if direct contact with the weeping rash area occurs (given the person is not immune as myself).

Has anybody been in thisa situation??

[Anonymous]

You should talk to your doctor and let him or her know.

Even if you have never had chicken pox, the odds are reasonable that if you were raised in the US, you are already immune. (I don't know your specific situation, so maybe you do have actual evidence of immunity).

What I will suggest is that after the baby is born, you find out about your immune status with a blood test, and perhaps get the vaccine some time thereafter. Chicken pox is very serious when caught as an adult.

After my passover seder and a dinner party were ruined because my mom had "never had chickenpox," I insisted she talk to her doctor. Turns out, she was immune all along and most likely had chickenpox as very young child.

[Anonymous]

OP here
I am NOT immune for sure as I had blood tests done prior preganncy. My doctor told everything was fine in April, and later in July she said "oh by the way you do not have chicken pox immunity". And I was about to go get vaccination since we were planning very hard. I was waiting for my period, which never came.

I also spoke with my Ob right after I leatrnt the news and I also called several infection doctors asking for advice. They all said that shingles are not infectious via air, and if I did nto touch the rash, I would not get it. I did not touch the person at all, but still my mind can not get rest. I was avoiding ANY sick people entire pregnancy, I refuised to go to any places where children could be present, half of my pregnancy I was home on bedrest. I thought I was done worrying about getting something bad, and here you go ............. aghhhhhhhh

[Anonymous]

Good news is that your baby is pretty much fully developed so take a deep breath, once the baby is born it will have to cope with whatever things are flying around in the air, hospital, people ... on it's own too.

Btw, just b/c people aren't sick or looking sick doesn't mean they can't be carrying bacteria and viruses, you in all likelihood might have been exposed to things that way but just didn't know it. Point is, you were fine throughout, you're fine now, the doctors think you're fine, stop worrying yourself more than necessary.

[Anonymous]

OP, sounds like you're going to be fine, but I totally understand your concern. Like you, I've never had chicken pox and had a blood test during college that confirmed I am not immune. I ended up getting the vaccine about eight years ago. After your baby is born, talk with your doctor about getting one (although I'm not sure it's safe if you're nursing -- definitely ask).