Chicken pox is an infection caused by a virus, which is called the herpes varicella-zoster virus. The virus can be highly contagious to people with no immunity to the disease, because they haven’t had a vaccination, or because they have never had the illness. Today the vaccination for chickenpox is widely available, so the incidence of people having serious bouts of the disease that require hospital care are much lower than in years past. In the past, most of the population contracted the illness at some time in childhood and then developed a natural immunity to it.For most people, chickenpox is a mild illness to get through, but it does come with a host of symptoms that can be difficult to experience. Chickenpox can usually be diagnosed by paying attention to the signs and symptoms of the illness, which can come on after 10 to 21 days after an initial exposure to the virus. Children who show signs of unusual fatigue, headache, high temperature and lack of appetite should be monitored for signs of an outbreak of a rash that indicate chickenpox.
Children should be vaccinated against the disease, to guard against contracting a serious case with complications, (which can include pneumonia, dehydration, toxic shock syndrome, Reye’s syndrome and a range of bacterial infections) as well as to guard against infecting others they come in contact with. If a person does come down with chickenpox, the recovery period will last from five to ten days. Symptoms like fatigue and elevated temperature may come on about one or two days before an itchy rash appears on the skin. Here are the symptoms a patient can expect to endure if they are hit with the illness.
