Second hand chickenpox exposure : PLEASE HELP!

Pie wrote:
My wife drove some visiting relatives to Disneyland -
During middle
of the 2 hour drive she found out one of the guests was
down
with adult chickenpox!!! I know, what a way to thank your
hosts --
Lock yourself in a full car for a four hour ride and not
tell them
till later.

Yep, seems pretty crappy to me.



Anyway, while my wife has had chickenpox before, I have
never had it and I am just going nuts wondering the odds
of me
getting it through her.

Fortunately, pretty low. She will need to have ay least a
mild form of the disease to pass it on to you. Of course, it
is possible for her to get the mild form of the disease so
the chances are not zero.



It seems like they were driving around in the car for a
total of
four hours so she has certainly been exposed to it, I
would guess. I
am just wondering if there is anything I can do at this
point to
minimize my exposure (other than staying with my parents
for the next
two weeks).

The incubation period averages about 14 days but has a range
of 7-21 and the infectious period starts about 2-3 days
before the fever. So to use this method you will need to
leave the house about one week after her exposure and stay
away for two after that.

Taking acyclovir(Zovirax), an antiviral drug that is cheap
and has minimnal side effects, has not been studied much but
would make sense. Some authors would recommend taking a more
expensive newer drug, valacyclovir (Valtrex). Advising
dosage would be difficult but the drugs cause so few side
effects that I think if one was going to guess it makes
sense to use the full treatment doses.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/970915ap/tips8.html
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m.../article.jhtml

Another possibility would be to get the immunization. There
is some evidence in children that it is effective if given
within 7-14 days after exposure. If course, there is a risk
of getting mild disease fromt he vaccine as well. The other
wrnkle is that in people over the age of 13 years two shots
are given at least a month apart so it is not clear how well
this would work in you. For future exposures getting the
vaccine might not be a bad idea.

--
CBI, MD