Tips and self care

Alongside treatment, pharmacy teams can offer self care tips, including:

• Avoid contact with people who have not had chickenpox, particularly pregnant women, immunocompromised people and babies younger than one month
• Avoid sharing clothes and towels
• Wash hands often
• Cover lesions that are not under clothes while the rash is still weeping
• Wear loose-fitting clothes to reduce irritation
• Stay away from work, school or day care if the rash is weeping and cannot be covered.³

Explain that only people who have not had chickenpox or the varicella vaccine can catch chickenpox from a person with shingles. Someone with shingles is infectious until all the vesicles have crusted over (usually five to seven days after the rash onset).³