Q: My husband is 29 years old and works in Switzerland. We had recently been to India for a month's vacation. A week later after we returned, he developed chicken pox and is on leave right now. We consulted a doctor here who said that there is no specific medication for this and gave a skin lotion to relieve from itching. He had undergone a blood test, which tested positive for varicella. The first 2 days he had fever and body ache, which decreased in the coming days. He has rashes all over his body, which have dried up now but the marks have not gone yet. He had very slight itching. Its been 3 weeks since he had this and is completely fine. The doctor has prescribed some vitamin B, calcium and magnesium tablets too. He had already suffered from chicken pox when he was 6 months old, so how can he get it again?

A:Chicken pox virus (Varicella virus) gives a solid life long immunity against future chicken pox after first infection. It may manifest as Herpes zoster in some individuals. Since your husband's rashes were diagnosed as chicken pox after laboratory tests it is unlikely that he had suffered from chicken pox during childhood. Was his childhood infection investigated properly by a laboratory? During childhood several viral infections cause rashes.