travel with chicken pox?

Sarahsaver

my daughter has chickenpox, since Ssturday the spots have been there. I have been told she will not be allowed to fly. I am not asking for specific medical advice, I know about the medical implications for fellow passengers, but will the airline let her fly out to mallorca with her daddy on Saturday at midnight? (if the spots have dried out by then...) Has anyone else got experience of this problem?

Bossyboots

I seem to remember on television a while ago on one of those airline programmes that they refused to let a little girl with chickenpox fly.

I think you really need to contact your airline to ask them as they are the only ones who can say for sure. Make sure you get the name of the person you speak to in case you subsequently find out the info was wrong.

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en.asp?TopicID=116

mjk_2

My little girl got chicken pox when we were out in Bulgaria last year. She saw a doctor who said that there was no problem with her flying despite the fact she was still covered in "wet" spots. She gave us a certificate to show to the airline staff if necessary. No-one at the airport noticed her spots so we weren't challenged.

I was surprised that she was allowed to fly. The doctor was only concerned about my little girl's fitness to fly rather than potential risk to other passengers. Must admit that even with the certificate we were dreading being stopped in the airport. We breathed a sigh of relief once we'd taken off!

Savvy_Sue

Who's told you she won't be able to fly? Check with GP? Local travel health clinic?

I would think carefully about this though: I do not know for how long chicken pox is infectious, but you don't know how vulnerable those around you might be, and the air in an aeroplane isn't exactly fresh. There was a girl in my son's class who had had leukaemia and was still very vulnerable to infections and we always always always had to tell the school if our child had been in touch with anything nasty.

Bossyboots

Savvy_Sue wrote:

Who's told you she won't be able to fly? Check with GP? Local travel health clinic?

I would think carefully about this though: I do not know for how long chicken pox is infectious, but you don't know how vulnerable those around you might be, and the air in an aeroplane isn't exactly fresh. There was a girl in my son's class who had had leukaemia and was still very vulnerable to infections and we always always always had to tell the school if our child had been in touch with anything nasty.

I googled flying and chicken pox and it is clear that this one is down to the airline and they can refuse to let someone fly. On one site, the main reasons were those you have stated that it could be catastrophic to a vulnerable passenger.

I suspect mjk's daughter was allowed to fly because the Bulgarian authorities did not want them stuck there.

Spendless

Hi

One of my sisters twins came down with chickenpox last year-day after they'd gone on holiday to Cyprus. She consulted a Cypriot doctor who said she needed to fetch neice back towards the end of their fortnight stay. She did this and the doc said neice was okay to fly- the other twin managed to not come down with it till day after they'd got home.

Earlier this year my friend and her hubby took their 2 kids for a weeks stay in Tenerife-again one child came down with chickenpox the following day. Took her to doctors there and doc said she was unfit to fly. Insurance would only pay for one parent to stop on with sick child. My friend ended up stopping for extra days with the child with chickenpox whilst her husband had to fly home with the other one.

EDIT- So to sum up in both cases I know of, though the children both came down with chickenpox abroad on day1 of holiday. Neice who'd had 2 weeks with it was allowed to fly home. Friends son who were only there for the week weren't and had to stop on for an extra week.

Savvy_Sue

Bossyboots wrote:

I suspect mjk's daughter was allowed to fly because the Bulgarian authorities did not want them stuck there.

Sounds plausible, and tbh I'd have more sympathy for trying to get a sick child home from holiday than getting them out of the country ... Although since I don't know the circumstances of the OP I'm not criticising, just saying what I think. It's what I take insurance out for!

Sarahsaver

I am worried because my daughter has been looking forward to her holiday with her dad - she lives with me not him - he has travel insurance AFAIK. He finds it hard to get time off work so he can't change the date.
By Saturday she will have had the spots for 8 days.

carpool72

Hiya, my wee one got the pox 2 weeks b4 our hols so I checked this out. You're generally regarded as not infectious 5 days after the spots come / when they're all scabby. You should definitely check with the airline, and see if you can get a note from your doctor - we were told that if she looked like she had it we'd need to prove that she was no longer infectious.

Good luck & I hope she's not too miserable!

Savvy_Sue

Sarahsaver wrote:

I am worried because my daughter has been looking forward to her holiday with her dad - she lives with me not him - he has travel insurance AFAIK. He finds it hard to get time off work so he can't change the date.
By Saturday she will have had the spots for 8 days.

Here's hoping for you then! I hope you understand where I was coming from ...