Chicken Pox

Chickenpox was once considered a rite of passage for most children. Before 1995 when a vaccine for chickenpox became available in the United States about 4 million Americans, mostly children, contracted chickenpox each year. Thanks to the vaccine, the number of cases and hospitalizations is down dramatically.

However, when chickenpox does occur, it's highly contagious among people who aren't immune. The red, itchy rash is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is part of a group of viruses called herpes viruses. It spreads easily from person to person through the air and physical contact.

Most people think of chickenpox as a mild disease, and, for most, it is. Chickenpox usually lasts about two weeks and rarely causes complications. But the disease can be serious, even in healthy children.

There's no way to know which infected child or adult will develop a severe case. However, the chickenpox vaccine is a safe, effective way to prevent chickenpox and its possible complications. In the small number of cases when the vaccine doesn't stop chickenpox completely, the resulting infection is much milder than the infections that put most U.S. children into bed for a week years ago.

The best-known sign of chickenpox is a red, itchy rash that breaks out on your face, scalp, chest and back, but it can spread across your entire body, even into your throat, eyes and vagina.

The chickenpox rash usually appears less than two weeks after exposure to the virus and begins as superficial spots. These spots quickly turn into small liquid-filled blisters that break open and crust over. New spots continue to appear for several days and may number in the hundreds. Itching may range from mild to intense.

The rash may be preceded by or accompanied by:

• Fever
• Abdominal pain or loss of appetite
• Mild headache
• General feeling of unease and discomfort (malaise) or irritability
• Mild cough and runny nose the first two days of illness before the rash appears

In healthy children, the disease is generally mild.

Chickenpox is highly contagious to people not immune to it and spreads quickly within child care facilities, schools and families. The virus is transmitted by direct contact with the rash or by droplets dispersed into the air by coughing or sneezing.

A person who has chickenpox can transmit the virus for up to 48 hours before the telltale rash appears and remains contagious until all spots crust over.

People who've been vaccinated against chickenpox are usually immune to the virus. The same is true of anyone who has had chickenpox in the past. People at risk of contracting chickenpox include anyone who hasn't been vaccinated or who has never had the disease.

Healthy Trust Immediate Medical Care serves the Chicago North Shore Communities of Lake County, Wheeling, Prospect Heights, Lincolnshire, Deerfield, Buffalo Grove, Northbrook, Highland Park, Long Grove, Riverwoods, Des Plaines, Palatine, Glenview, Highwood, Northfield, Libertyville, Winnetka, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Mundelein, and Bannockburn.