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Chickenpox has a two-week incubation period where a person is not contagious, but can spread the disease during the last 48 hours. Symptoms include blisters, fever, headache, and abdominal pain. While mild in children, it can be life-threatening for pregnant women, infants, and adults. Adults should avoid those with chickenpox, while children are advised to stay home unless symptoms become severe.
The incubation period for chickenpox lasts about two weeks. During this incubation period, a person will show no symptoms of the disease. For most of this time period, it’s not even contagious. But during the end of the incubation period, the affected person may start spreading the disease even if no symptoms have appeared yet.
Chickenpox’s long incubation period is one reason the disease is so contagious, especially among children. Many times children will go to school during the incubation period of the disease and spread it to those around them. Children spread the disease more. Chickenpox is highly contagious and can be spread through a cough or sneeze. During the last 48 hours of the incubation period, a person can spread chickenpox to others.
Once the incubation period has passed, the signs of chickenpox appear. In addition to chickenpox blisters, these can also include fever, headache, and abdominal pain. Thankfully for children, mild chicken pox is relatively harmless. The disease passes within a few days and the blisters usually disappear over the next few weeks. Once a person gets chickenpox, they are very unlikely to get it again.
While chickenpox is mostly harmless in children, it can be a life-threatening disease for some groups. Pregnant women, infants, and adults can develop serious chickenpox complications. In the worst case, chickenpox can lead to encephalitis, a swelling of the brain that can be life-threatening. About 100 people die of chicken pox every year.
The long incubation period may be partly responsible for such high numbers. An adult who has not had chickenpox should avoid someone with chickenpox blisters or any other noticeable symptoms. Because the disease is contagious during the late incubation period, a person is still at risk of catching the disease from anyone who has the disease but hasn’t yet shown symptoms.
Adults with chickenpox are usually advised to see a doctor. For children, the opposite is usually recommended. Children with chickenpox are advised to avoid a doctor’s office unless symptoms become very severe or a high fever occurs. Chickenpox almost always goes away on its own, and there is nothing a doctor can do to speed up the process. The only thing you get from the doctor in such cases is to increase the possibility of the child spreading the disease to others.
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