Most of us had chickenpox when we were young, although some of us will not be aware that we’ve had it. After you have chickenpox, the virus remains dormant living in the nerves. For most of your life, you will not be aware of this, but from time to time the virus can come back and spread to the skin causing a disease called shingles.

Shingles does not spread as easily as chickenpox, but the fluid in the blisters does contain the chickenpox virus. So someone who is not immune to chickenpox can catch the infection if they are in contact with this fluid.