Is Shingles Contagious? Get The Facts…
Like with other viral skin diseases, people often wonder about the contagiousness of shingles. People often want this question answered for the hope of avoiding it. How contagious is shingles, really? And how can you protect yourself from them? Knowing this will help you protect yourself from this possibly deadly virus.
Shingles is only contagious to people who have not yet been exposed to the virus. A person with shingles can pass of the disease to someone who has never had chicken pox, especially children. To avoid contamination, you should avoid direct contact with anyone who has the shingles. Being in the same room with a shingles patient will not cause you to catch the virus. You have to touch it or to have direct contact with it. The shingles virus is not airborne.
You may protect yourself from getting shingles by being vaccinated. A shingles patient may also take necessary precautions to keep the virus from spreading. As a matter of fact, someone who gets contact to a shingles patient will not get shingles. He will get chicken pox, instead. Shingles and chicken pox are caused by the same virus, both diseases very fatal to children and harmful to adults.
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This shingles virus is already inside the body. To be honest, we all have the shingles virus inside of us. You do not catch shingles from someone else. You catch the virus that activates the virus in your body.
In that case, shingles is both contagious and not contagious. The virus that causes shingles is not airborne because they are already in your body. The virus that activates it, however, is very much airborne and infectious.
Shingles may be contagious in the sense that a virus may be passed on to another. However, the catcher will suffer chicken pox, instead. The carrier cannot transfer shingles to another patient.
To protect yourself from shingles and chicken pox, avoid direct contact with any virus carrier. Make sure that his rashes have healed enough before you approach them.
source : Myths and Facts About Shingles