Chickenpox is a viral disease that is highly infectious and spread through coughs, sneezes, and direct contact. Symptoms include a rash, fever, and body aches. Treatment involves managing symptoms, and complications are rare but serious. Immunization is available in many countries.
Chickenpox is a viral disease caused by an organism called the varicella-zoster virus. In many countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, this disease is known as chickenpox. The infection is usually mild, with symptoms persisting for 10-14 days. After a person contracts chickenpox once, they usually become immune to it.
The chickenpox virus is highly infectious and can be spread through exposure to an infected person’s cough or sneeze, as well as direct contact. Another factor that increases the ease of transmission is the fact that a person who gets chickenpox is contagious before they start showing symptoms. Once someone has been exposed to the virus, they will develop symptoms in 10 to 21 days, but the infectious period starts five to seven days earlier. The infectious period lasts another 10-XNUMX days after the onset of symptoms.
In adults, early symptoms of infection are nonspecific and include nausea, fever, headache, general body aches, and loss of appetite. The characteristic itchy rash associated with chickenpox begins to develop shortly thereafter. In children, the rash may develop before or together with other symptoms. The blisters first develop on the head and body, then spread to the limbs. New blisters continue to form for up to five days, and by day six, older blisters will have started to heal. Most blisters heal within two weeks of the rash first appearing.
Treatment for the infection usually consists of managing symptoms with medications to reduce itching, pain, and fever. Both children and adults can be treated with antiviral drugs such as acyclovir to reduce the severity of symptoms. No further treatment is needed unless complications develop.
Complications from chickenpox are rare, but they can be serious and potentially life-threatening. Complications could develop if the blisters become infected or if the blisters develop in a sensitive location, such as the eye. The least common and most serious complications are pneumonia and encephalitis, which are infection and inflammation of the lungs and brain, respectively.
If the virus is contracted by a pregnant woman, the virus could cross the placental barrier and infect the fetus. Depending on the stage of pregnancy it occurs, the effects of fetal infection could include eye, spinal cord or brain damage, skin disorders, and anal or bladder dysfunction. A pregnant woman who becomes infected near the end of her pregnancy is at risk of giving birth prematurely, and if the baby is exposed at or after birth, she is at risk of pneumonia and other complications.
Chickenpox immunization is part of the vaccination schedule for children in many countries, including the United States, Australia and New Zealand. In immunized populations, infection is relatively rare; globally, however, up to 90 million people are infected each year. In countries where children are not vaccinated, nearly all children will become infected.
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