STAYING HEALTHY
YOU
may think of chickenpox
as only a childhood disease. But if
you’ve never had it, you never out-
grow your risk.
Fortunately, vaccines are avail-
able to help protect against the virus
that causes chickenpox and, in later
life, a painful condition known as
shingles.
While the vaccines are not
100 percent e ective, they can
prevent many cases of the diseases
or reduce their severity, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
If you’ve had chickenpox, you
don’t need to be vaccinated against
the disease. But you might need
another vaccine instead: the one for
shingles.
Preventing shingles
e same virus that produces
chickenpox causes shingles. If you’ve
ever had chickenpox, the virus re-
mains in your body. It can resurface
when you are older, usually a er age
50, triggering shingles.
Visiting a loved one:What to know
When you’re visiting someone in the hospital, consider bringing along get-well
wishes and cheerful stories. But leave the germs outside.
People in the hospital can be vulnerable to infection, so it’s important that visitors
take thoughtful precautions. Here are some tips for visitors from the Association for
Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology:
w
Stay home if you’re sick or have had symptoms of illness within the past three days.
w
Check with sta before bringing food, owers or children to the patient’s room.
w
Read and follow any instructions posted outside the patient’s room.
w
Do not sit on the patient’s bed or handle hospital equipment.
w
To help prevent carrying germs into or out of the room, wash your hands with soap
and water or use hand sanitizer before and after visiting. Also wash your hands if you use
the bathroom, eat or drink, sneeze, cough, or touch your nose or mouth while visiting.
C H I C K E N P O X
A N D S H I N G L E S
Are you
protected?
e hallmark sign of shingles is
a painful skin rash and blistering
along nerve bers on one side of the
face or body. e rash lasts from two
to four weeks. About one person
in ve who gets shingles has severe
pain for months or even years a er
the rash clears up.
e U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration has approved a one-time
shingles vaccine for all people age
50 and older, including those who
have had shingles before. In a study,
the vaccine reduced the risk of de-
veloping shingles by approximately
70 percent.
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