can you fly with chicken pox?

[lost*in*cyberspace]

ust because someone was around people that got the virus doesnt mean they will definately get it, especially if they were vaccinated. so how would that make someone irresponsible? anyone can be incubating any virus and not know it yet.

I'm not a physician, so I do not know if there is any way to know if there is any type of test to see if you are incubating the virus.

If you know that your children have been exposed to chicken pox (apparently multiple times in a short period) and many of their vaccinated peers are getting the disease, and then knowingly taking them on an airplane and then to a crowded amusement park and exposing hundreds, if not thousands, of other people is a lot different than if you had no idea your children had been exposed.

I don't mean to sound harsh - I am very sympathetic to this situation. I just don't like the idea of possible exposure to many people and the thought of dealing with a full blown case of chicken pox on vacation is almost unthinkable.

 

[wdwfamilyinIL]

I again want to state, how could your peds office respond like that? I know of several people who got chicken pox even after having the vaccine. In general if you get its not as bad, but you still have it and would be contigious to others. I had chicken pox a couple of years ago, I wouldn't wish that on any adult. If your dh would come down with it, may the lord be with you. There is no way to tell if you are incubating it, I went to bed fine one night and was covered in spots by morning. If someone in your family gets it, use dial soap and tepid water. I would assume that your whole family has been exposed by now, so there is nothing you can really do about it except for hoping and praying. If anyone has any signs of it, please don't fly. While its just a pain in the butt for most, it can be fatal for others.

 

[mommytomy3]

If you know that your children have been exposed to chicken pox (apparently multiple times in a short period) and many of their vaccinated peers are getting the disease, and then knowingly taking them on an airplane and then to a crowded amusement park and exposing hundreds, if not thousands, of other people is a lot different than if you had no idea your children had been exposed.

.

I dont know if DD will even get it! the first sentence in my first post says "this is a me worrying question!"
Geez, I think I am being considerate... I already have a van reserved to drive home *IF* she were to happen to come down with it while there! do you think I'd tote my DD covered in spots and calamine lotion, with a fever, around the parks?! LMAO, I'd be the first person running her home to the Dr.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

I just don't like the idea of possible exposure to many people and the thought of dealing with a full blown case of chicken pox on vacation is almost unthinkable.

Her DD was vaccinated. And she was in the class with the initial exposure 2 weeks ago I presume, and is doing fine. We are all exposed to MANY viruses every time we go in a school, yet we go about our lives. I don't think her DH had contact with the child in question. She has a backup plan.

Go to Disney and have fun OP! If someone gets the pox, hop in that van and go home as you planned.

 

[mommytomy3]

thanks Bibbidi

 

[jjjbennett]

If you hold to the theory that just because the child was exposed to a virus she should not fly or go out then you would have to shut down all schools every time a child in the school gets Chicken pox or the flu as all the kids in the school are potentially contaminated even though not exhibiting symptoms.

And honestly once you have had chicken pox you can also get shingles any time in your life. When you have an active case of shingles you can in turn possibly infect a person with the varicella virus who has never had chicken pox. That would mean you would be a potential virus carrier for your whole life.

I just don't think a healthy person who has been exposed to chicken pox but is not exhibiting the disease is a health threat.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

I'm one of those airline passengers who has the mumps. I have been off work for 9 days (actually "working" from home) as directed by the CDC. I was vaccinated, too! DH and DD have shown no symptoms, and I've been breathing all over both of them for weeks. If she's not showing any symptoms *yet* I'd worry when the time came. I certainly didn't think I'd get the mumps, but DH is hypocondriacal about it and keeps thinking his glands are swelling up (they're not!!).

 

[Letsbgoofy]

mommytomy3,

Where do you live? Will we see your town on the news? How very weird.

I say go and drive home if you need to. If your DD hasn't come down with them yet, she probably won't. You seem like you are being very responsible to me.

Good luck!!

 

[Deb & Bill]

When my son got his vacination for chicken pox several years ago, he also got the chicken pox, but he only got about 5-8 of them. Not all over his body and he didn't run a fever. So you still can get the CP with the vacination, but not as bad. Just don't expose others.

 

[2Princes2Princesses]

This scares the heck out of me. My kids are either vaccinated, or are old enough to have had the chicken pox already. My DD13 brought them home when she was in K and gave them to her then 3 year old brother and her 27-year-old father. I woke up Easter morning to find my ex on the couch, wrapped in a comforter, the heat as high as it would go. He was shaking so bad he almost couldn't stay on the couch. He was bright red. At the hospital, his temperature was 106.5. They couldn't believe he was still talking, walking, and functioning.

Kids who are going to get the pox are contagious before the breakout. My ex had taken precautions around our DD once she broke out, but it was too late, he was exposed.

Vaccinations don't always take in some people. My sister has had the MMR about 10 times and still has no immunity to rubella. My mother has no immunity to mumps, despite being vaccinated. Which worries me with the outbreak recently. My DH has had the chicken pox, but he is immunocompromised now, as he is on chronic steroid therapy for Gulf War Syndrome, so I don't know what would happen if he was exposed. I worry about shingles in him....they are extremely painful.

Consider that this may be like all those people in Iowa with mumps. From the news reports we have heard, it is a new strain that the current MMR is not effective against. That could be the case with this pox outbreak. One mutation, and the vaccine is useless against it. Viruses are like smart bombs.....they change as vaccines are created against them. They are actually quite amazing. I loved virology....but I digress.

We will be arriving on 4/30 and I will be spending my first day at Disney cleaning our room with Lysol wipes. Maybe I am paranoid, but I worry that maybe someone who was exposed to the mumps went to WDW before us. I will not risk my son (who only has had his first MMR dose) or my mom just so noone thinks I am paranoid.

I am not usually a germaphobe...but this got my panties in a twist. Besides, have they even determined those pox vaccines are good long term??? I mean look at the smallpox ones....they immunized all those people and now they say they are no longer effective. The chicken pox vaccine could be the same. Which scares me, since that means my 2 youngest could be unprotected when the disease is the most dangerous...in adulthood.

And I would be calling that girls mother (the one in your car) and having a cow!! Who sends their kid to ballet with chicken pox?? WTH??

As far as canceling?? I don't know. No, you don't want to expose people, but are you?? I mean, your DD may be more likely to give everyone on the plane a cold that she caught the day before you leave. KWIM? So you may not be exposing everyone. And if you stay home, I doubt you will lock her in the house. So she would be exposing others anyhow. That is a tough one. I can't say what I would do in the same situation.

 

[Wonderlandmom]

I have not read nor heard anything about the mumps being from a mutant new strain. Only read some people on here speculating such. I did read this about the mumps today:

"We have absolutely no information to suggest that there's a problem with the vaccine," Dr. Gerberding said. "What's going on here is basically a number of people who haven't received both doses, coupled together with people who have received the vaccine but are susceptible anyway, living in crowded conditions like college dormitories or mixing up with other students at spring break or during holidays, and setting up a cascade of transmission that's going to take a while to curtail."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/health/20mumps.html?ex=1145678400&en=0b47161f8893e7aa&ei=5087

and this:

Jane Seward, acting deputy director of the CDC's division of viral diseases, said the latest outbreak might have been sparked by someone coming from overseas.
Health officials said the mumps strain is the same as one circulating in the United Kingdom, which has seen 100,000 cases since 2004.

Seward said the disease seems to have landed in a pocket of vulnerable people. Many college-age students in Iowa have not had their second dose of vaccine because they entered school before the requirement for a second dose took effect in the early 1990s.

The federal government now recommends the vaccine at 12 to 15 months and 4 to 6 years of age.

There is no evidence that the immunity conferred by the vaccine diminishes with age, but the vaccine still fails to protect 10 percent of the people who receive the recommended two doses, Gerberding said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14385635.htm

The chicken pox vaccine has been used in Japan for 20 years longer than here. Some people don't get the right immunity from a shot, and others can even get illnesses several times.

I would not put my life on hold because of a possible exposure in a child that had been vaccinated! Enjoy your trip!

 

[vtstate]

my mom babysits for me and another mom. the little boy has been vaccinated and came down with chicken pox he is covered not just a few spots but from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes. in his mouth everywhere. my daughter is 3 and we are watching her closely since we are leaving for disney may 23. i have never had them either and being 40 it kind of freaks me out. i dont know what freaks me out more my daughter getting chicken pox or waiting to here is i am going to still beable to fly on delta. this is suppose to be a happy time in our lives and has been nothing but oh my gods. lol thanks for listening.

 

[gonemousin']

I think it's great that you have a back up plan - stick with that and enjoy your trip. Chances are, since your child was already exposed and hasn't broken out, she'll be fine. If not, you drive home.

I'm sure this decision is so difficult for you and your family. I hope everything works out for you all and I hope you aren't forced to postpone your trip.

 

[DISUNC]

Good Luck! I hope your daughter is feeling better. So much for all the planning, Huh?

Sending some Pixie dust your way for the others in your family

A few years ago, my kid, The only one who was ever immunized, came home from WDW with the Chicken pox.

He had them all over. Quite a mess! The only thing that helped him with the itching was Aveeno Oatmeal soap!

 

[flowerpower]

Hi,

I sympathize with your dilemna, and it is great that you have a backup plan. The best thing to do is be informed. Go to your state Department of Public Health website or the CDC www.cdc.gov and look for a public health fact sheet on varicella (chicken pox). You are getting some correct and incorrect information on this thread.

Good luck!

 

[snowbunny]

My DD caught the pox last year although she had been vaccinated as a toddler. The vaccine is not 100% effective, although the MD said her case may have been a bit less serious as a result.

That said, when we went to the pediatrician to verify it was chicken pox, they wouldn't even let us sit in the waiting room with the other patients! We had to be buzzed in at the back door and go right into an examining room.

I simply can't believe you were told sure, get on the plane and have a good time. (Aside from contagion, all my DD wanted to do was soak in a bathtub with the Aveeno oatmeal stuff, anyway.)

 

[eeyore45]

I work at a school, the nurse sent home a student, the nurse said "chicken pox" Mom went to doctor - doctor said "bed bugs"!!

eek! That being sid, another child was only home for 2 days with a mild case of pox - doctor said, she was no lnger contagious... and like a previous poster stated, most doctors wont even see a child with chicken pox!!

(and aveeno makes a great - it is hard to clean out of the tub, but very soothing for itchies!!

 

[SueM in MN]

I work at a school, the nurse sent home a student, the nurse said "chicken pox" Mom went to doctor - doctor said "bed bugs"!!

eek! That being sid, another child was only home for 2 days with a mild case of pox - doctor said, she was no lnger contagious... and like a previous poster stated, most doctors wont even see a child with chicken pox!!

(and aveeno makes a great - it is hard to clean out of the tub, but very soothing for itchies!!

The person with chicken pox is contageous until all the pox have crusted over (not completely healed, but crusted over). If someone just has a few "pox" they may be all crusted over in a few days.

For the soaks to sooth the itch, there was a study a while back that showed kids who soaked in a tub in the first 48 hours after the pox first appeared ended up with more individual chicken pox "bumps" than kids who did not go into the tub until later. So, the study suggested no tub baths/soaking until at least 48 hours after the first "pox" was noticed. What you can do until then is use calomine lotion or make a paste of oatmeal or baking soda and a bit of water. Use cotton swabs to dab it on.

 

[Marseeya]

Wow, that's so wild that so many kids have come down with it! I wonder if they all got the same vaccination -- like from the same lot.

It wasn't funny at the time, but I came down with CP over a week before we were supposed to leave for our trip last year. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go until a couple of days beforehand when the pox had pretty much gone away. Then when we were there, DS came down with them. He hadn't left the room much, so he didn't expose many people. He stayed in the room the entire trip, but if you're going to be confined to a room for 10 days, it might as well be AKL!

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm one of those bad mommies who tried to get her kids to catch chicken pox back in the 80's!!! Seems that they were carriers for the longest time. But then they got them in their teens...not a pretty sight. Now, dd who is 12, has had the shot...I was really hoping that she got chicken pox before she had to get vaccinated but it didn't happen.
My biggest issue with people running around while still contagious is the poor pregnant women out there. According to my ob-gyn, if a woman contracts chicken pox while pregnant it is very dangerous for her baby. Say she is 4 months along, gets exposed to chicken pox. Wherever she, or in this case the baby, gets a pox, that part of the developing fetus will stop developing!! So, if a pox is where an arm bud should be, there will be no arm!!! Hopefully, most women have had chicken pox, or the vaccination at this point.
And no, I am not saying that the OP is going to be running around infecting people. I'm not sure what I would do in her case. It is, indeed, worrying. Here's hoping all works out for you and your kids and you get to have a wonderful, pox-free vacation!!!