What if you get chickenpox twice?

Answer 1

Chickenpox can happen more than once once (I've seen it happen), but usually it only comes once in a lifetime.

Unfortunately, later in life you can suffer shingles, because chickenpox is caused by a virus which never leaves the body and settles, lying dormant for years, in nerve roots. When your immune system is depressed or weakened, the virus can be reactivated as a shingles infection.

Answer 2

Getting chickenpox twice is unusual, but not impossible. See your health care provider to check your diagnosis. Ask for a culture or smear of the lesions or a titer test to demonstrate increasing IgM titers. Another explanation is more likely.

Answer 3

It doesn't usually happen because either vaccination or one case of the viral disease (varicella zoster) usually results in immunity. But it can recur if the body does not react completely. It is more dangerous if it recurs in an adult, because it manifests as shingles (called herpes zoster), which is a more serious condition.

Normally when you get chicken pox, your body forms cells to "remember" the virus's proteins. The virus is killed off, so you will not be able to get it again. But you can still get shingles, because some of the virus remains dormant in nerve cells in the body.

Answer 4

You cannot get the chicken pox twice. The second outbreak is shingles.

Answer 5

If you have chickenpox, you can spread it to other people, even if you had it before.