Chickenpox-introduction

Chicken pox, medically known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease. It affects mostly children and sometimes adults also. A rash appears on the body 2 days after the person gets infected. The rash forms into blisters, which burst and then scab over.

An itchy rash of spots that look like blisters can appear all over the body and may be accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Symptoms usually go away without treatment, but because the infection is very contagious, an infected child should stay home and rest until the symptoms are gone.

The incubation period of chicken pox is 2 to 3 weeks. People are more prone to the disease during winter and spring season.

The chickenpox virus can spread easily from one person to another. It most often spreads through the respiratory tract, such as mucous membranes of the mouth and nose. You also can get chickenpox through the air, from an infected person’s sneezing or coughing. Chickenpox is very common in children, and it tends to only cause mild illness (for more information see Related topics). Once you have had chickenpox, you usually become immune to it for life, although on rare occasions people can catch it again.

However, after you have had chicken pox, the varicella zoster virus remains in nerve cells in your spinal cord for life.

What are the main causes of Chickenpox?

Chickenpox is caused by the varicella zoster virus. The same virus causes both chickenpox (varicella) and shingles (zoster). Varicella zoster virus is a member of the herpes virus family.

Herpes zoster results from reactivation of varicella virus that has lain dormant in the cerebral ganglia (extramedullary ganglia of the cranial nerves) or the ganglia of posterior nerve roots since a previous episode of chickenpox. Exactly how or why this reactivation occurs isnâ??t clear. Some believe that the virus multiplies as it’s reactivated and that antibodies remaining from the initial infection neutralize it.

Chickenpox is extremely contagious, and can be spread by direct contact, droplet transmission, and airborne transmission. Even those with mild illness after the vaccine may be contagious.

In a typical scenario, a young child is covered in pox and out of school for a week. The first half of the week the child feels miserable from intense itching; the second half from boredom. Since the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine, classic chickenpox is much less common.

When someone becomes infected, the pox usually appear 10 to 21 days later. People become contagious 1 to 2 days before breaking out with pox. They remain contagious while uncrusted blisters are present.

Once you catch chickenpox, the virus usually remains in your body for your lifetime, kept in check by the immune system. About 1 in 10 adults will experience shingles when the virus re-emerges during a period of stress.

It also can be transmitted indirectly by contact with articles of clothing and other items exposed to fresh drainage from open sores. Patients are contagious up to five days (more commonly, one to two days) before and five days after the date that their rash appears.