#CHICKEN POX TREATMENT SKIN#

Some people develop pain that persists for a long time after recovering from shingles.Īdults with shingles can transmit the virus to individuals who never had chickenpox or have never been vaccinated against chickenpox. The affected area is painful and sensitive to touch, and may be associated with numbness, tingling or a burning sensation. Shingles also cause a characteristic rash with blisters, usually as a single strip around one side of the torso. The virus remains dormant in the nerve cells and can reactivate later on in life. Shingles are a late complication of chickenpox, usually affecting older adults. If the mother catches chicken pox right before birth, the baby may develop a severe infection. If women get infected during early pregnancy, there is a risk their baby may have low birth weight and changes affecting the lungs. In very rare cases, chickenpox can be fatal.

#CHICKEN POX TREATMENT SKIN#

Possible complications of chickenpox include bacterial skin infections, dehydration, pneumonia, and inflammation of the brain. Severe cases of chickenpox can cause extensive rash over the entire body, and even form in the eyes, throat or vagina.

A person is considered infectious for one to two days before the rash and another four to five days after the rash develops. Teenagers and adults may experience nausea, muscle pain, lack of appetite and headaches before the rash develops.Ĭhickenpox illness typically lasts four to seven days. A person with the infection may have all three phases at the same time. First, there are small raised pink-reddish bumps which turn into small blisters filled with fluid, and later become crusts and scabs. The rash is extremely itchy, starts on the back, chest and face then spreads over the entire body. The most common chicken pox symptoms and signs in children are a rash, low fever and malaise (tiredness). The same varicella-zoster virus is also responsible for a painful skin rash called shingles in adults. Most people develop long-life immunity after an infection, and getting chickenpox more than once happens rarely.

If one person has chickenpox, up to 90% of the people close to the infected person, and who are not immune will likely become infected.Īdults who didn’t have chickenpox during childhood, those who didn’t receive the vaccine or individuals working in childcare or schools are also more likely to get the infection. It is also very contagious, and spreads quickly though schools. The risk of catching chickenpox is higher in children, because chickenpox is mostly a childhood disease. Chickenpox can be transmitted through direct contact with the rash, but more often is transmitted through inhaling air droplets from an infected person who may cough or sneeze. Chickenpox causes and risk factorsĬhickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and mostly affects children under the age of 10. Routine childhood immunization includes the vaccine against chickenpox, and adults have access to a vaccine for shingles.

That dramatically decreased after the vaccine became available in 1995.

In the early 1990s, about four million Amercians were getting chickenpox and over 10,000 required hospitalization. Chickenpox used to be a very common infection in the US.

Chicken pox treatment