Well, Den was talking to his mom on the phone yesterday and found out that his Gram – who was in the hospital last week – apparently now has Shingles. I heard from across the room as his mom said to Denis, “Keep Natalie away from her!!” Because, you know, Chicken Pox + pregnancy = bad. Apparently. So now I’m trying to research Shingles (herpes zoster) to if/how/when it’s contagious, because as it stands now Gram is saying she’s not coming to Thanksgiving. Which is really very sweet, but I don’t know yet if it’s necessary.

From the Wikipedia article: “Since shingles is a reactivation of a virus contracted previously—often decades earlier—it cannot be induced by exposure to another person with shingles or chicken pox. Those with active blisters, however, can spread chicken pox to others who have never had that condition and who have not been vaccinated against it.” So it seems that the incidence of Shingles is triggered by something in your own body, not by “catching” it from someone else – however, Shingles can pass Chicken Pox to someone who is not immune. (I will be continuing to research this.)

I am immune to Chicken Pox, if you’re wondering. Natural immunity. I never got the chicken pox – or at least not any actual signs of it, but apparently when my brother had it when we were children I managed to become immune. Which is a good thing, because they near freaked during immigration when they asked for the date I had chicken pox and I informed them I’d never had it. (They promptly sent me for a blood test, and my being immune saved my ass.) Since when is Chicken Pox an immigration issue anyways? I found that weird.

This part of the wikipedia article is about the varicella vaccine, and I think is pretty significant:
“prior to the vaccine, it has long been known that adults received natural immune boosting from contact with children infected with varicella. This helped to suppress the reactivation of herpes zoster.[16] In Massachusetts, herpes zoster incidence increased 90%, from 2.77/1000 to 5.25/1000 in the period of increasing varicella vaccination 1999-2003.[17] The effectiveness of the varicella vaccine itself is dependent on this exogenous (outside) boosting mechanism. Thus, as natural cases of varicella decline, so has the effectiveness of the vaccine.”

Nice, huh? So by eradicating chicken pox outbreaks (but giving everyone immunity, which basically means giving them the dormant virus) we’re causing far more outbreaks of Shingles. And this, unfortunately, is not going to be helped by an individual choosing not to vax, as the “immune boosting” would have been caused by normal outbreaks in the “herd” (society). One case of herd immunity being a bad thing, I guess.