A pregnant woman who's not immune to chickenpox and has prolonged exposure to a person with the disease should consult with her physician about the risk to herself and her unborn child. Anyone who has had chickenpox as a child is at risk for a latent complication called shingles . After an infection some of the varicella-zoster virus may remain and hide in nerve cells. Many years later the virus can reactivate and resurface as shingles a painful band of short-lived blisters. About one in five adults who've had chickenpox experience shingles, usually after age 50.
Children can develop shingles but do so less often than adults.
Rarely, a person with shingles can pass along the chickenpox virus to others who aren't immune. Shingles can lead to its own complication a condition in which the pain of shingles persists long after the blisters disappear. This complication, called postherpetic neuralgia, isn't contagious. In otherwise healthy children, chickenpox typically requires no medical treatment. Some doctors prescribe antihistamines to relieve itching.