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SheilaT

(23,156 posts)

13. No, you can only get shingles if you did have chickenpox.

Fri Apr 29, 2016, 02:23 PM

Apr 2016

It's possible you had it so young that you don't recall, or had an exceptional mild case. But shingles is the reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox, which simply hangs out in your body forever.

I myself never actually had an actual case of chickenpox. My older sister got it when I was a baby, this back in about 1949, and took me to the doctor who gave me a shot of gamma globulin, something they did back then to boost the immune system. Mom told me I got the other symptoms, but never got the actual poxes. And clearly I developed immunity, because in the many years since I've been around chicken pox lots of times but never gotten it.

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Shingles vaccine. [View all] trof Aug 2015 OP

ok ok I got it already- LiberalElite Aug 2015 #1

Get the Shingles Shot! KoKo Aug 2015 #2

You must've misread my post I got it already LiberalElite Aug 2015 #3

Sorry...thought you were posting this as a helpful post to other DU'ers... KoKo Aug 2015 #4

Hey - I'm annoyed LiberalElite Aug 2015 #5

Okay...I'm fairly cynical myself about Big Pharma KoKo Aug 2015 #6

I suspect Medicare will cover all of it SheilaT Aug 2015 #7

I didn't check this year, but last year, even with a supplement, napi21 Sep 2015 #9

So much depends on exactly what coverage you have. SheilaT Sep 2015 #10

Got it on my face when I was 50. narnian60 Sep 2015 #8

Get the shot. My father spent five days in a cardiac unit until they figured out his pain was vanlassie Sep 2015 #11

You can get the Shingles even if did not have chickenpox. LiberalFighter Apr 2016 #12

No, you can only get shingles if you did have chickenpox. SheilaT Apr 2016 #13

The shingles shot is covered by your drug plan left-of-center2012 Aug 2016 #14

I've known three people who got shingles. klook Aug 2016 #15

The vaccine is not 100% effective vanamonde Oct 2016 #16

Got mine a couple of years ago Mickju Oct 2016 #17