overview-of-chicken-pox

Chickenpox is a disease that can occur to anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Mostly it is referred to as a very common childhood skin disease.

Today there have been vaccinations introduced to eradicate the same but still, people might contract this disease due to the infection. Most of us contract this disease during our childhood but still, but this disease can occur at any stage. But this disease is less painful during childhood.

Table of Contents

Signs & Symptoms

Causes of Chickenpox

Spreading of Chicken Pox

Complications

Signs & Symptoms

• The first and foremost signs of chicken pox can be – Mild fever for about 2-3 days, rashes on certain body parts, and weakness.
• Later these rashes develop into small bumps over the skin, small raised red spots initially, and then turn into blisters that might pop later.
• These may start occurring on the scalp and later spread over the rest of the body. In very few cases it may happen that the patient might not suffer from rashes and in some cases, the condition might be extreme.

Causes of Chickenpox

Let’s now answer the fundamental question, why chickenpox occurs? Chickenpox results from the varicella-zoster virus. It can infect when an individual comes in direct contact with a rash. But chickenpox can also spread when a person infected with chickenpox coughs or sneezes and the other person inhales them.

Children suffer from chickenpox after about one to three weeks of contracting the virus. They can give the virus to other children from a day before they show signs of illness to about four to five days after a skin rash appears. Consult your dermatologist for proper treatment.

Spreading of Chicken Pox

• This disease can be very contagious. That is why children are more likely to contract it.
• One can easily contract this disease from members of family friends or schoolmates either by using their products, airborne particles, or touching the infected areas. One might not be even aware that he or she has already contracted this disease as it takes about 14 to 18 days for the symptoms to show.
• Once the symptoms occur it takes almost 5 to 7 days for the disease to heal. It may remain contagious till about 5 days or till the sores have formed the crust over them.

Complications

• Bacterial skin infection leads to scarring of the skin. In some extreme cases, chickenpox can affect a child’s central nervous system and cause some severe disorders.
• These are the disorders of the cerebellar portion of the brain – in this case, the child might suffer from seizures, tremors, dizziness, damaged nerves, burning or inflammation headaches, and some similar liver and brain diseases.
• Pregnant lady especially the ones in their third trimester has to take extreme care in case they happen to contract chicken pox because this situation might harm the fatality rate of the baby.
• Also, ones suffering from life-threatening diseases like cancer, AIDS, and so on have to be cautious and careful if in case they contract chicken pox.

In all the above cases and also in the normal case of chicken pox it is always advisable to take medical assistance and advice. After all medical guidance can help you avoid certain facilities.