Some 14,000 people are admitted each year into hospitals for chickenpox, 60% of them being children. From 1000 individuals only 5 require hospitalization, and in the worst of cases this disease can prove to be fatal. The type of people witch are at the greatest risk of dying from this disease are actually adults, followed by infants, but from the 100 pacients to die from chickenpox 40 were still children. A vaccine could be used to prevent all of these, however recent studies have shown that the number of pacients is the same in hospitals.
One of the good aspects of the disease is the fact that it actually gives immunity to the body making the chance of getting ill again from this very slim. Aside from itching a few rare complications might appear in pacients.
20% of people who have had chicken-pox might later on in their lives suffer from a reactivation of shingles.
Itching, being the most common complication of the varicella infection, can be easily alleviated with some simple home made remedies.
Secondary Infection and Scarring may also appear; small scars usually remain after the falling of the scabs but this doesn't last long, the scars clearing up after a few month. In the case of itching there is an all other problem, Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria sometimes causing infection in the pacient. Children are the most in danger of this kind of complication because of the simple fact that they are more likely to scratch. Also in children another rare complication would be year infection leading sometimes to hearing loss.
Bacterial Superinfection is the most common serious complication of chickenpox being caused by group A streptococcus. Although mild and not very dangerous its spreading to muscle, fat or even the blood can lead to life threatening situations such as the necrotizing fasciitis (the so-called flesh-eating bacteria) but this is still very rare. Persistent or recurring high fever, redness, pain, and swelling in the skin and in the tissue beneath and even pneumonia are some of the symptoms. In the case of pneumonia the most likely people to suffer complications are pregnant women, smokers, and those with serious medical conditions, serious complications appearing in some cases caused by varicella: lung scaring that makes the pacient's breathing very difficult.
More complications would even be brain and central nervous system damage or even strokes, but as said they are extremely rare.
Being a childhood disease, 90% of the sick pacients are children under the age of 14 or younger. Chicken pox can strike at people at any time but it is most likely to occur most often in March, April, and May in temperate climates. Between 3.1 and 3.8 million (a number equal to all the birth of an year) cases of chickenpox would appear in people in the United States before the introduction of widespread vaccination.
The varicella virus is an enveloped, double-stranded DNA virus witch attaches its self to the wall of the cell it invades entering the cell afterwards. After it un coats it reaches the nucleus of the cell where it divides into virions that are later released out making it possible to infect other healthy cells.
The chickenpox virus is usually acquired by entering in direct contact with the infected fluid that the blisters contain, or by inhalation of the tiny respiratory droplets from the infected person's lung. When a pacient carrying the varicella virus sneezes or coughs it releases the virus into the air in the form of tiny droplets. A person standing near the diseased is this way exposed to the virus, witch is inhaled with the tiny droplets containing it. Reaching the lung it is than carried throughout the body to the other organs and skin where it causes the all so known rashes. Before the rash is seen the virus makes havoc in the body's organs and because the infection fever appears and even fatigue, joint pains, headache, and swollen glands. The usual incubation period for the chicken pox is 14 days but this period can range from 9 to 21 days.
The first visible signs of chicken pox appear on the skin, usually on the trunk, continuing afterwards to spread to the entire body. In the beginning the lesions are only 2 to 4 mm across but gradually they get bigger forming an irregular outline (rose petal). Later on it fills with a clear liquid only to get cloudy after 8 -12 hours, bursting afterwards. The liquid contained in the blister is considered to be very contagious. It eventually forms a crust that will fall of in some 7 days. The entire cycle of a blister last about 7 days only to let another one take its place somewhere else on the body. This taken in consideration it takes about a week for the lesions to stop appearing. Children are not sent back to school until the entire process has ended.
Groshan Fabiola has sinced written about articles on various topics from Woman Menopause, Medical Condition and Health. For more information about or even about. Groshan Fabiola's top article generates over 6120000 views. to your Favourites.