Welcome to the Varicella (Chickenpox) Page
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Chickenpox is an infectious
disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus which results in a
blister-like rash, itching, tiredness and fever.
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The rash appears first on the
trunk and face, but can spread over the entire body causing
between 250 to 500 itchy blisters. Most cases of chickenpox occur
in persons less than 15 years old. Prior to the use of varicella
vaccine, the disease had annual cycles, peaking in the spring of
each year.
How do you get chickenpox?
Chickenpox is highly infectious and spreads from person to person by direct contact or through the air from an infected persons coughing or sneezing. A persons with chickenpox is contagious 1-2 days before the rash appears and until all blisters have formed scabs. It takes from 10-21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.
- In children, chickenpox most commonly causes an illness that lasts about 5-10 days. Children usually miss 5 or 6 days of school or childcare due to their chickenpox. About half of all children with chickenpox visit a health care provider due to symptoms of their illness such as high fever, severe itching, an uncomfortable rash, dehydration or headache. In addition, about 1 child in 10 has a complication from chickenpox serious enough to visit a health care provider including infected skin lesions, other infections, dehydration from vomiting or diarrhea, exacerbation of asthma or more serious complications such as pneumonia.
- Certain groups of persons are more likely to have more serious illness with complications. These include adults, infants, adolescents and people with weak immune systems from either illnesses or from medications such a long-term steroids.
- What are the serious
complications from chickenpox?
Serious complications
from chickenpox include bacterial infections which can
involve many sites of the body including the skin,
tissues
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- under the skin, bone, lungs
(pneumonia), joints and the blood. Other serious complications are
due directly to the virus infection and include viral pneumonia,
bleeding problems and infection of the brain (encephalitis). Many
people are not aware that, before a vaccine was available, there
were approximately 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths from
chickenpox in the U.S. every year . One child and one adult died
each week. For information about serious infections following
chickenpox visit the following site:
Complications from Group A
Streptococcus:
http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/
00049535.htm
- Can a healthy
person with varicella die from the disease?
Yes, many of the deaths and
complications from chickenpox occur in previously healthy children
and adults. From 1990 to 1994, before there was a vaccine
available, there were about 50 chickenpox deaths in children and
50 chickenpox deaths in adults every year; most of these persons
were healthy or did not have a medical illness (such as cancer)
that placed them at higher risk of getting severe chickenpox.
Since 1999, states have been encouraged to report chickenpox
deaths to CDC. In 1999 and 2000, CDC received reports that showed
that deaths from chickenpox continue to occur in healthy,
unvaccinated children and adults. Most of the healthy adults who
died from chickenpox contracted the disease from their
unvaccinated children.
Yes, chickenpox can now be
prevented by vaccination.
Yes, but it is uncommon to do so.
For most people, one infection is thought to confer lifelong
immunity.
- Chickenpox
in children is usually not
serious. Why not let children get the disease?
It is never possible to predict
who will have a mild case of chickenpox and who will have a
serious or even deadly case of disease. Now that there is a safe
and effective vaccine available, it is not worth taking this
chance.
Source Public Domain National
Immunization Program
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For your convenience, we have
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to find more pages on this subject: Searches completed in December
2004
Searches completed in December 2004
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