We have had a confirmed case of shingles at school. This is related to the chickenpox virus. If your child has not had chickenpox and has not previously been immunised for chickenpox there is a small possibility that your child may have been exposed to this virus.

You can’t catch shingles from someone else with shingles. However, if you’ve never had chickenpox, or received the chickenpox vaccine, you can catch chickenpox from close contact with someone who has shingles, because the shingles blisters contain the chickenpox virus.

As the virus is spread through direct contact with fluid from the rash blisters, a person with shingles is infectious when the rash is in the blister phase. Once the rash has developed crusts, the person is no longer infectious.

Shingles is less contagious than chickenpox and the risk of a person with shingles spreading the virus is low if the rash is covered. 

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