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Children's health

Slapped cheek - 3 different pieces of advice given about when ds will stop being contagious!

3 replies

hazeyjane · 29/04/2013 14:06

Slapped cheek has been going around, I had it a couple of weeks ago. Ds (2.9) has had slapped cheek since last Thursday. Big bright red cheeks, no temp, bit of a runny nose.

So NHS guidelines say that when the rash has spread to arms and body, the child is no longer infectious. However I called the dr on Thurs as ds had a very important hospital appointment, and I wanted to see what the dr said, he said that if the rash is on his cheeks he is no longer contagious, but to keep away from pregnant women just in case. This seemed a bit hmm to me, so I rang the hospital and they said the paed would be happy for me to come in, but for us to wait in a private room. So we managed to keep away from everyone, apart from the paed.

The problem is that ds, who now has the rash all over his body, still has the red cheeks, so I called the dr again this morning and got to speak to our usual gp, her advice was that ds is contagious until the rash has gone from his cheeks, so best to keep away from preschool, and public and to cancel his mmr booster on Weds if cheeks still red.

I am confused! Which is best advice to follow?

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ilovepowerhoop · 29/04/2013 14:34

the health protection agency does not have a specified period of time for exclusion so he should be ok to go back to preschool.

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ilovepowerhoop · 29/04/2013 14:37

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Slapped-cheek-syndrome/Pages/Symptoms.aspx - says in some cases the rash can last for several weeks.

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hazeyjane · 29/04/2013 19:19

thanks ilovepowerhoop. the hcp advice still says to be careful around pregnant women and vulnerable children though, and I don't know any of the children or their parent's at preschool (ds only started last week), so I would hate to spread it to someon who has immunity problems or is pg.

There seems to be a conflict between whether you are contagious when you have the rash on the face. It does say that the rash can last for several weeks, but I thought that was the body rash. With dd1 when the rash appeared on her body, it disappeared on her face, whereas ds still looks like a cherry tomato!

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