Chicken-pox is known as a mild childhood infection and people often pay no great attention on its importance. Today, all children are vaccinated against the virus causing it due to the serious complications it can produce and due to the high fever and general weakness it causes to the person infected. The condition is manifested by the red small crusted vesicles hat appear on the child's face and trunk; these usually heal without scarring in a few days.
Most exposed to chicken-pox and its complications are children suffering from leukemia, cancers or AIDS as they all share a suppressed immune system that is unable to fight the virus. An important problem is the treatment with steroids. Most of the children treated with oral or injected steroids can develop chicken-pox symptoms without confronting any complications.
Still, some of the children who have been administered oral and injected steroids for longer periods of time could be at risk of dangerous complications and even death if no immediate and appropriate measures are taken. Steroids are sometimes prescribed for asthmatic crises and any side-effects during use must be reported to doctors especially if the child has contacted the chicken-pox.
The apparition of chicken-pox cannot be completely annihilated even after vaccination as children can catch the virus from other kids who do not experience any symptoms 1-2 days before the rash is present. For that matter, the vaccine is safe and should be administrated to all children. Even if the vaccinated ones will contact chicken-pox, the form of the disease will be much milder.
The average exposure for a child to become infected is usually one hour. If any cases of chicken-pox occur in your child's class or in any of its playmates, it is likely that he has been exposed. You must contact a doctor immediately especially if your child has followed a treatment with steroids in the last period of time. The incubation of the virus is from 11 to 21 days so you must monitor the child's condition for about 3 weeks after the exposure.
The signs you must be attentive on are fever and the occurrence of small crusted vesicles on the child's face, trunk, arms and legs. In normal conditions, the crust lesions blister and heal in about 3-4 days. If your child is on a steroid medication and the lesions fail to heal, t is possible that he has developed complications.
Children with corticosteroid therapies can be injected with a varicella-zoster immune globulin to minimize the risk of infection; also available are now antiviral medications like Acyclovir most indicated for exposed children suffering from asthma. In most cases, the oral and injected steroids therapy should not interfere with the course of chicken-pox. Some medications are still available to prevent serious complications from occurring.
Varicella zoster is a virus that is part of the herpes family. This virus is responsible for some disease, the most known of all being chicken pox. This condition is more common in children, but adults can develop chicken pox as well. Chicken pox only strikes once in a persons life and it is best that this happens when you are a child. This condition is also highly contagious.
The incubation period of chicken pox is about two weeks. In this time your child will have no chicken pox symptoms. After the two weeks have passed, the first chicken pox signs will actually be symptoms very similar to those of the flu. A mild fever, some coughing and loss of appetite are the first chicken pox symptoms. Unfortunately, many of us do not realize that there are actually telling us that our child suffers from chicken pox. Precisely in this period, children are the most contagious. After a couple of days, chicken pox rash starts to appear on your child' s body. The first areas that are usually affected by chicken pox are the back and the chest. The chicken pox rash is at first just some tiny red and itchy spots, that will turn into blisters in a couple of day' s time. The blisters are filled with fluid and they will speared very quickly on the rest of your child' s body. There are chicken pox cases, where the child has only a few such blisters, but usually he/ she will have at least three hundred chicken pox blisters. These then turn into crusts and then scab just a few days later.
Chicken pox treatment is mainly aimed at relieving the symptoms that your child has. Itching, which is one of the chicken pox trade marks can be relieved with antihistamines or with oatmeal or baking soda baths. If fever is also a chicken pox symptom that you child is has, then ipubrofen must be given to the chicken pox patient. Do not give your child aspirin, because it can increase the risk of developing Reye' s syndrome. Antiviral drugs may also be prescribed in chicken pox cases.
Another great thing is that now a chicken pox vaccine is available. This vaccine will not prevent your child from developing chicken pox, however it will make the chicken pox case a lot milder and it will also help prevent some of the chicken pox complications.
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