Chicken Pox
It’s a highly contagious common viral infection. The virus (varicella-zoster) belongs to the herpes family. A chicken pox infection is evident by a very itchy rash with small red bumps that blister, drain, and scab over. The good news is that most people only get it once.
Spring and fall often will have a peak in chicken pox outbreaks.
In the United States, most chicken pox cases occur in the fifteen year old and under age group, with the majority occurring between five years old and nine years old.
Direct transmission
- Common among family members and co-workers due to close contact.
- Contact with airborne particles. Exhaled droplets often enter the air, like by the infected person’s cough.
- Contact with the fluids that drains from the blisters.
Indirect transmission
- Contact with article of clothing or other item infected with fresh drainage from open blisters
When does the chicken pox virus spread?
Up to five days before the appearance of a rash, an infected person could transmit the chicken pox virus. Most often the chicken pox virus will be transmitted one to two days before the chicken pox rash appears. From approximately five days after the rash first appears and the blisters begin to drain, till the last blister scabs over.
In about two weeks, after being exposed to the chicken pox virus, The first red bumps will show up.
Chicken pox recurrence
- Once infected with chicken pox a person is considered immune.
- It is possible to a chicken pox infection more than once. It will be a mild outbreak and is called a breakthrough infection.
- The re-activated virus will most likely cause shingles.
Chicken Pox Symptom
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