Parents whose kids are vaccinated against chicken pox might be more at risk of getting shingles, new research has found.
Scientists in the UK have found there's a 30 percent less chance of an adult getting shingles - caused by the same virus - if they're exposed to the chicken pox virus via their children, provided they too had chicken pox as a kid.
"The results support the theory that re-exposure to the herpes zoster virus in adulthood (after chickenpox infection as a child), boosts immunity to shingles," they said in a statement.
Poeple infected with varicella - the virus which causes chicken pox - never completely get rid of it. It lies dormant in the body, and can return later in life as shingles.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine looked at health data from nearly 10,000 adults who'd been infected before, and lived with children who contracted chicken pox between 1997 and 2018.
They found adults were 33 percent less likely than usual to develop shingles in the two years after the child had been infected, and 27 percent less likely over the next two decades. The effect was stronger for men than women.
But they're warning the "perverse outcome" shouldn't stop parents getting their children vaccinated if it's available.
"These findings cannot be used to justify for or against specific vaccination schedules."
The research was published in the British Medical Journal.
