Chickenpox or “chickenpox” is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which usually occurs in epidemics with greater frequency in autumn and spring.
According to Dr. Teodora Moisil, primary infectious disease doctor at the Victor Babeș Hospital in Timișoara, the virus is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory secretions from patients with chicken pox or through contact with the contents of vesicular skin lesions.
How long are you contagious if you have chicken pox?
Chickenpox is contagious 2-3 days before the blisters appear and lasts until they turn into crusts.
“After infectious contact, any person, regardless of age, can get the disease. Exceptions are those who have acquired immunity after illness, following vaccination, and babies born to immunized mothers. The incubation period is, on average, 14 days”, explains the infectious disease doctor.
What are the symptoms of chicken pox?
The onset of the disease is fever, chills, fatigue, headache. 1-2 days later, the first eruptive elements appear on the skin.
“It is characteristic that in this condition there can be, at the same time, eruptive elements in different stages: macules, papules, vesicles and crusts. It takes 10 to 14 days for all of this to crust over (dry out).
The rash is very itchy and appears both on the integuments and mucous membranes (oral, genital mucosa), in the scalp, and can be generalized,” adds Dr. Moisil.
Complications of chicken pox
In children with a good immune system, chicken pox causes mild clinical forms. There is, however, a very rare exception, when the disease has neurological manifestations of the cerebellar type (inflammation of the cerebellum), but with a favorable evolution.
“Severe forms, with abundant rash and complications, such as varicella pneumonia, encephalitis, polyradiculoneuritis, occur more frequently in adolescents, adults, immunosuppressed people, pregnant women, newborns and require hospitalization and appropriate treatment.
If chicken pox occurs in pregnant women, 5-7 days before or immediately after birth, the risk of neonatal chicken pox is very high (newborns can develop severe forms with a risk of death in 30% of cases)”, explains Dr. Teodora Moisil.
How to treat chicken pox
Treatment of mild forms of chickenpox is symptomatic and does not require hospitalization. In these cases, antithermics are recommended to control fever without using aspirin, local skin applications with mentholated alcohol, for disinfection and reduction of itching, and isolation.
“Antiviral treatment is indicated for people at high risk of developing a severe form (adolescents, adults, pregnant women, immunosuppressed patients, newborns). Antibiotic treatment is recommended only in skin superinfection”, the doctor emphasizes.
Chickenpox confers lifelong immunity. Varicella vaccination is the most effective measure to prevent the disease. People who could not receive varicella vaccine can benefit immediately after the infectious contact of specific immunoprophylaxis.
2023-09-21 03:28:27
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