What can I do if I suspect I am in the early stages of chickenpox?

Chicken pox and shingles are the same virus but in different forms. Chicken Pox is usually the first presentation, which typically happens in younger individuals and with a characteristic patten of blisters, crusting and a trunkal rash, while Shingles tends to happen later and can be associated with painful blisters in a nerve distribution. The varicella virus sits within the nerve endings, after the initial Chicken Pox infection, and if you become unwell or your immune system is under attack, it can develop as a secondary infection.

Thank you Jxnxlxx for your question. It's a common question that is posed to us. A vaccine is essentially a "weakened" form of the virus, it is trying to make your own body immune system react to it. So even if you are already infected before and immune, taking another vaccine would do no harm. (Your body "remembers" these past infections and makes you "immune) Testing is usually expensive and takes about a week, and even if the test is negative, you could still be immune, because your body stores the "memory" somewhere.