Ugh things that frustrate me - Shingles in our School warnings.

[Jim Allen]

Got the below email from the school today, how disappointing

Dear Parents/Guardians of X,

There has been a case of shingles in our school and your child/children  may have been exposed.

Shingles may cause some early (prodromal) symptoms that last for one to four days before the rash first appears. These early symptoms can include:

a high temperature (fever) of 38C (100.4F) or over
myalgia (muscle pain)
burning, tingling, numbness or itchiness of the skin in the affected area
a feeling of being generally unwell
Please consult your doctor or the HSE website for more information.


Kind Regards,

XXX School.

My reply:

Hi,
 
Thank you for the email.

I appreciate mentioning the potential exposure to shingles, as it can cause chickenpox's in someone who has not previously been exposed to the virus.  X BTW has already had chickenpox so is not at any risk.

However, your email then goes onto mentioning the symptoms of shingles to parents, this seems highly suggestive shingles as a condition could be spread from person to person when factually shingles can't.

I would appreciate if the school does not send emails with any suggestive or misinformation about medical conditions, it's also to avoid misunderstandings or stigma towards people with or affected by those medical conditions.   

Best, Jim
 
https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/c/chickenpox/
 
https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/s/shingles/
 
It is not possible to catch shingles from someone else with the condition. The shingles virus is reactivated from a previous infection with the varicella-zoster virus (the virus that causes chickenpox) and is not transmitted by person-to-person contact.

However, it is possible for someone who has never had chickenpox to catch chickenpox from someone with shingles. In Ireland, chickenpox is so common during childhood that 9 out of 10 adults have had it, so will not be affected.

https://patient.info/news-and-features/shingles-myths-you-should-stop-believing

Myth: You catch shingles from someone who has shingles
You can only get shingles if your own varicella-zoster virus is reactivated. So, if you had chickenpox in the past, and the virus is activated again for some reason, you can get shingles.

It's not known why the virus sometimes re-emerges, but it's thought that periods of illness or stress can trigger it, as well as other risk factors mentioned above.

But coming into contact with someone who has shingles will not reactivate your dormant virus. In other words, you cannot catch shingles from someone who has the infection. You can't catch shingles at all - you just get it randomly.

However, you can catch chickenpox from someone who has shingles if you've never had chickenpox before. It's very rare to get chickenpox more than once in your life, so as a rule you're only at risk if you haven't had it already.

[leatherman]

it's always sad when we have to reprimand officials who should know better.
it's always good when we can educate officials about what they should know.....especially when referencing their own links back to them. LOL

I remember a few years ago when the local HIV clinic hired some new staff and one of them decided to mail letters out to large number of patients warning that they were infected with Hepatitis A and highly contagious. However, a positive HAV-Ab total test has two components: IgM, which appears 2 to 4 weeks after infection and is present for 2 to 6 months; and IgC, which appears a few weeks after IgM and is present for the rest of the person’s life. All the patients had IgC and no one had current Hep A or was contagious. Nothing like giving our small city a great big health scare for no reason. ugh

[fabio]

I went to school and places normally when I had shingles,nobody got anything......
Of course the school thinks that you can "get" shingles like it's infectious. Of course,in people who never went through chicken pox it's a bit dangerous,but I know that every child goes through chicken pox (probably I did too,because that's what the doc said was in just one side,because the virus got reactivated or something).
I guess schools should do better research. Certain topics about general health (even sexual health) wasn't explained to our school. When my teachers talked about hiv they only said AIDS,just like the news where they fail to understand the difference from lack of knowledge. They even claimed that treatment was sort of futile and death from the virus was inevitable,which was quite scary.

[Jim Allen]

Well yeah, nearly every child in within the EU I think, certainly Ireland. Shingles I've had that a few times, sucks, but certainly not from someone else, just reactivation of the virus.

I think in the USA they have started to vaccinate kids in recent years, although, open to correction on that. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/varicella/public/index.html

When my teachers talked about hiv they only said AIDS,just like the news where they fail to understand the difference from lack of knowledge.

I honestly can't remember HIV/AIDS being mentioned in school. Does not mean it was not mentioned though but maybe I just can't recall. I do remember sex-ed condoms on cucumbers and scary stories about the clap (Gonorrhea) & pregnancy etc

[fabio]

 It was a topic that they used in biology uni entrance exams which you do from high school. It's quite the outdated book too. There wasn't any sex ed and still isn't. They consider it to be explained by the parent and not the school. The hiv/aids And the difference in theories between lamarc and Darwin were the bane of my nightmares when it comes to finals .
We also had a pregnant girl in class,she's a nice mother now though.