What is Answerbag?

Ask questions and share your knowledge with the world here on Answerbag. Get the best answers where there are no duplicate questions and questions are always open - our community of over 1,140,000 will find your answer!

Join For Free!
 

Having Shingles While Pregnant

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
 

Instructions

Symptoms

  • Step 1:
    According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms that accompany a shingles infection while pregnant include a red rash over part of your body, intense pain, itchiness and blisters that can break open and ooze.

Isolation

  • Step 1:
    If you have shingles while pregnant, avoid contact with other pregnant women during the time that you have unhealed lesions, since you could pass the infection on to them as chickenpox, increasing their chances of giving birth to babies with birth defects.

Risks

  • Step 1:
    Although shingles and chickenpox are caused by the same virus (varicella-zoster virus), Dr. Ben Peyton-Jones, a specialist in obstetrics with BabyCenter.Com, states that research does not indicate problems arising in a pregnancy as a result of a shingles infection.

Complications

  • Step 1:
    Having shingles while pregnant may increase your chances of developing certain complications, including secondary infections of the eye or skin, depending upon what location of your body was infected.

Treatment

  • Step 1:
    Treatment for shingles typically involves an anti-viral medicine and pain relief. Make sure your doctor knows you're pregnant so he can discuss different treatments approved for use with pregnant women.

Having Shingles While Pregnant Provided by eHow.com
Related Content
Can Shingles Be on Both Sides of the Body?
Shingles is an infection most likely to strike the older population. It is caused by the chickenpox virus and can infect those who have previously been affected with chickenpox. Shingles is painful...
Nerve Damage Caused by Shingles
When a person develops shingles, a viral infection closely related to chickenpox, there is the potential for the nerves under the skin, through which the virus has traveled, to become inflamed and...
How Do You Get the Shingles?
Instructions Varicella-Zoster Infection Step 1: Shingles results from a flare-up of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV). When the virus is contracted, which normally happens during childhood,...
Interesting Facts on Shingles
Varicella-zoster is the virus that causes chicken pox. After a person has had the chicken pox, the virus lays dormant in the body and may reactivate later to cause shingles. Shingles is a painful...
How to Avoid Shingles
Shingles (herpes zoster) is a condition caused by a flare-up of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV, also known as human herpes virus-3). This virus causes chickenpox during first infection and then...