"PF Riley" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 11:30:57 -0500, "Jeff"
wrote:

"Wendy" wrote in message
. com...

Can a child who has already had chickenpox, and is later exposed to a
new wave of the virus, pass the new chickenpox to non-immune people?

Yes. Having had chicken-pox or the vaccine is no guarantee that a child
won't get it again. It is much less likely, but not impossible.

I think Jeff misunderstood the question.

A child can get chicken pox more than once, but cannot pass chicken
pox on just from exposure elsewhere if the child does not develop
clinical disease himself.

I disagree. You can have a subclinical case of chicken pox or a missed case.
For example, many cases of chicken pox consist of just a few lesions. I see
know reason why these kids (or adults) would not be infectious.

Kids and adults who spread the virus around the most are not the ones who
are sick, but the ones who are about to get sick. There is no reason to
beleive that kids who have had the vaccine or the disease can't spread a
virus around from a new outbreak. However, the rate of spreading the virus
around would be much, much lower than kids who have never had the virus or
vaccine.

So, I do beleive that a child who has had the vaccine or the disease can
spread the virus around, but, if this happens, it is at a much lower rate
than kids who have not had the disease or vaccine.

Jeff

PF