What are chickenpox?
Chickenpox is a well-known illness among young kids, especially those under age of twelve. An itchy rash of spots that look like blisters can appear all over the body and will be accompanied by symptoms which also appear when someone has the flu. The symptoms normally go away without any treatment, but the infection is very contagious and therefore, an infected child should stay at home and take some rest until the symptoms are dissapeared.
The cause of Chickenpox is the varicella-zoster virus. Kids can be
protected from this virus by getting the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine. This vaccin will be given to the child between 12 to 15 months of age. A booster shot at 4 to 6
years old for further protection is also recommended.
It is also recommended that people older than 13 who have never had chickenpox or received the vaccine against chickenpox get two doses of the vaccine. These doses should at least be 28 days away from each other.
A person normally has only one episode of chickenpox, but the varicella virus can lie dormant within the body and cause a different type of skin eruption later in life called shingles (or herpes zoster). Getting the chickenpox vaccine significantly lowers chances of getting chickenpox by kids, but they could still develop shingles later in life.
Symptoms
The rash begins wit a lot of small red bumps that look like pimples or insect bites. They will develop into thin-walled blisters filled with clear fluid. The blister wall breaks, leaving open sores, which finally crust over to become dry, brown scabs.
Chickenpox blisters are normally less than 1/4 of an inch wide, have a light red base, and appear in crops over two to four days. The rash may be more heavy or severe in kids who have other skindisorders such as eczema.
During chickenpox a part of the kids have a fever, pain in the abdominal area, a sore throat, headaches, a day or two days before the rash appears. These symptoms may be there for a few days, and fever stays in the range of 37.7°-38.8° C. In some rare cases the fever may be higher. With younger kids the symptoms are milder and they have fewer blisters than older children or adults.
Chickenpox is normally a mild illness, but can affect some infants, teens, adults, and people with weak immune systems more severely. With some people you see a development of a serious bacterial infection involving the skin, lungs, bones, joints, and even the brain. Even kids with normal immune systems can sometimes develop complications, mostly a skin infection near the blisters.
Every person who has had chickenpox (or the chickenpox vaccine) as a child is at risk for developing shingles later in life. This is the case for 20% of the people. After an infection, chickenpox virus can remain inactive in the cells of nerves near the spinal cord and reactivate later as shingles.
This can cause tingling, itching, or pain followed by a rash with red bumps and blisters. Shingles is occasionally treated with antiviral drugs, steroids, and medications against pain, and nowadays there is a shingles-vaccine for people 60 and older.
