Can older people catch shingles from a baby with chicken pox?
Contrary to previous answers – NO they cant. You cannot ‘catch’ shingles from anyone. Chickenpox is caused by a virus called the varicella-zoster virus. Once you have had chickenpox this virus stays within your body, but goes dormant. At anytime in the future, after you have had chickenpox, the virus can be triggered and become active again. There is not always any apparent reason for this, but it is sometimes linked to being low or stressed due to another illness or trauma. When this occurs a person then develops a bout of shingles. This is not because you have caught shingles from anyone, or because you have been in contact with chickenpox, but purely by virtue of the fact that at sometime in the past you have had chickenpox yourself and the virus is reactivated. Anyone of any age can suffer with bout of shingles once they have had chickenpox. A larger proportion of elderly folk seem to suffer with shingles, but this is due to a weakening/lower of the immune system in old age which m
