• @Piers
    link
    English
    11 year ago

    Chickenpox. Ahem. We didn’t have a vaccine for that when I was a child. We just caught it and were miserable for a few weeks.

    I’m sorry to tell you that’s not what happened.

    You had chickenpox for a few weeks whilst the shingles bedded down nice and cosy in your nerves ready to strike again when your immune system is down. It’s not over and it’ll be worse when it comes back.

      • @Piers
        link
        English
        21 year ago

        There’s a chicken pox vaccine that prevents you from catching it yes. The shingles vaccine reduces the risk of the shingles you already have breaking through into active infection for about 10 years and then isn’t effective a second time. (Currently) there’s no not-having-shingles once you’ve got it.