Sending a 3yo to nursery with chicken pox

purple.sarah

geoffky wrote: »

I would not report the hv because i think the consequences of reporting people in these times are too much for some people
What if she loses her job..The house may go, the car may go ect ect....

The consequences could have been very serious if the OP had heeded the health visitor's advice and sent her child to nursery with chicken pox and the pregnant worker at the nursery had caught it! Times are tough but that doesn't mean a Health Visitor should be allowed to give out dangerously innacurate medical advice.

notanewuser

LandyAndy wrote: »

Can you get chicken pox multiple times?

A very small percentage of people can (they don't acquire full immunity the first time).

jackyann

Some people may get chicken pox multiple times - very rare - more likely one of the occasions it's another viral illness that mimics chicken pox.
Opinion tends to vary as chicken pox takes up to 3 weeks to incubate - you are most infectious in the few days before the spots come out, at which point you may have infected vulnerable people unknowingly.
That is why some people are more cavalier than others. However, the Department of Health does provide guidelines that should be followed by staff.
Like most people I think there is a gulf between knowingly putting an infected child in the way of others, and simply going about normal life whilst unawares.
I do wonder if it was a trained HV who gave that advice, or an untrained assistant? I would approach the usual HV, say you wondered about the advice and wanted to check it. Your usual HV may take the matter in hand, or if not, then you can consider a more formal complaint.

Limey

kat360 wrote: »

Limey, I'm actually wondering if it could be genetic as I've had chicken pox 4 times and my brother has had it 3 times. I actually phoned our doctors for the receptionist to tell me if I think it's chicken pox to not bring her into surgery!

I'm a Toxicologist and my genetics studies are many years behind me, but I suppose it's possible. It would be an amazingly specific genetic anomoly. Are you susceptable to other viral infections?

Janepig

As much as the HV would appear to be wrong in the advice that she gave, the OP's daughter would already have been infectious for a couple of days before the spots came out anyway, so if she's been in nursery in the few days before her rash appeared she may well have passed the virus on and that's nobody's fault is it?

DS caught chicken pox from his best friend at nursery even though he had no contact with him once the rash appeared, he gave him a kiss goodbye (I know ) on the way home the day before his friend got spotty. Two weeks to the day later, bosh, he's covered. And every year at school, afew weeks after term starts in September, the nursery class is half empty because all the kids who haven't had chicken pox before, are now all off with it!

Jx