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Chickenpox

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French_guy
French_guy

I did an immunity test to chickenpox (Varicella zoster IgM) and it says "negative, no antibody detected" (meaning I'm not immune, correct?)

  1. I don't think I was ever vaccinated
  2. My mother is 99% sure I got it when I was a child (I'm 57 now)....
  3. But more importantly: my daughter had the disease when she was 8 months old (I was 37 years old then) - I was with her all the time, without taking any particular precautions (being a baby, I'm sure I carried her in my arms many times when she was contagious)....But I never got infected

    How is it possible that I test negative when I was so close to an infected infant without getting it ? Common sense tells me that not getting this highly contagious disease from my daughter means I was already immune from getting it myself when I was a child, right?

    Should i redo the test? Is there a test better than another one?

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1 Reply

  • Rachel_Micro
    Rachel_Micro French_guy

    Edited

    There are two types of antibody commonly tested for in blood tests

    IgM is the one that is usually positive if you've had the disease recently

    IgG is the one that shows you have immunity - either from having the disease or from having been vaccinated.

    So a negative IgM doesn't mean you're not immune, it means you haven't been infected recently. If you want to know if you have immunity then you need to test Varicella zoster IgG

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