Sun 'stops chickenpox spreading' (maybe)

BBC ^ | December 18, 2011

[decimon]

Exposure to sunlight may help impede the spread of chickenpox, claim researchers.

The University of London team found chickenpox less common in regions with high UV levels, reports the journal Virology.

Sunlight may inactivate viruses on the skin, making it harder to pass on.

However, other experts say that other factors, including temperature, humidity, and even living conditions are equally likely to play a role.

The varicella-zoster virus is highly contagious, while it can be spread through the coughs and sneezes in the early stages of the infection, the main source is contact with the trademark rash of blisters and spots.

Pollution

UV light has long been known to inactivate viruses, and Dr Phil Rice, from St George's, University of London, who led the research, believes that this holds the key why chickenpox is less common and less easily passed from person to person in tropical countries.

[decimon]

Ping

[Cicero]

If this is true, then it may be yet another reason for taking Vitamin D-2 in the winter or in overcast weather. Because sunlight on the skin is how the body normally makes Vitamin D.

There is certainly some evidence that Vitamin D helps cut down on colds and flu.

[JRandomFreeper]

I was a bitty baby when I had chickenpox. But I remember being set on the southwest side of the house (less than 10 meters from where I am now) in the sunlight.

I'll file this under old wives tale that may have some basis in science.

/johnny

[MetaThought]

It might not be vit D though, but exposure to sunlight itself. Possibly due to UV, IR etc.

[Roos_Girl]

D3 is the better version of D to take. It is more similar to what the skin produces when exposed to sunlight.

[Cicero]

Yes, thanks. I meant to say D3.

[bigheadfred]

Nuclear radiation. Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it.

[decimon]

I was a bitty baby when I had chickenpox. But I remember being set on the southwest side of the house (less than 10 meters from where I am now) in the sunlight.

This gets tricky:

"Ordinary glass is partially transparent to UVA but is opaque to shorter wavelengths, whereas silica or quartz glass, depending on quality, can be transparent even to vacuum UV wavelengths. Ordinary window glass passes about 90% of the light above 350 nm, but blocks over 90% of the light below 300 nm."

'Germicidal' UV is UVC which is blocked by window glass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_germicidal_irradiation

[LukeL]

If UV light is bad for virsues, that raises a huge problem for evolutionist, as they claim the first cells were heavily mutated by viruses.

[JRandomFreeper]

Nah, mom put me outside the house in the clover, near the grassburrs.

Fresh air and sunshine. That'll fix it.

And that was about the time the B-47 Hustler was ruining glass windows and waking babies all over some parts of Texas. Windows and glass were not big sellers around here.

"And we have a bay window here..." Booooom! KaFriggingBOOM! boom! And there you go to find the glazier.

Can I actually hear a doppler effect with sonic booms? I think so.

/johnny

[decimon]

Nah, mom put me outside the house in the clover, near the grassburrs.

Left you out for the coyotes. Got it. ;-)

[JRandomFreeper]

I survived. What does that tell you? ;)

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

B-58. Time for bed for this young man. We're conflating bombers.

/johnny