Exposure to Chicken Pox

[karennallan]

3 week old boy who received an exchange transfusion at 3 days of age for haemolytic jaundice. Older sibling presents today with chicken pox. Older sibling has had limited to no contact at all with the sibling, has not handled the infant or been in close contact.

Would the infant be at risk of contracting the disease? Would the infant carry any antibodies at all to the disease or would they have all been lost with the exchange? It was a single volume exchange.

Karen

[Jolie, BSN]

3 week old boy who received an exchange transfusion at 3 days of age for haemolytic jaundice. Older sibling presents today with chicken pox. Older sibling has had limited to no contact at all with the sibling, has not handled the infant or been in close contact.

Would the infant be at risk of contracting the disease? Would the infant carry any antibodies at all to the disease or would they have all been lost with the exchange? It was a single volume exchange.

Karen

Do these children not live in the same home? Given that most people are contagious prior to the eruption of lesions, and that the virus is readily spread by respiratory/droplet contact, it is not necessary to have especially close contact with a sick individual to contract chicken pox.

If the baby is breastfed, he may be getting some immunity from the mother, but I would be on the phone to the pediatrician immediately inquiring about VZIG (varicella zoster immune globulin).