Chickenpox is a highly contagious and very common disease that is often described as one of the “classic” children’s diseases, because so many people suffer from it during their childhood. Chickenpox can be spread by direct contact and also by airborne transmission. Rare but serious complications can result from the disease, requiring immediate medical treatment attention. The best way to avoid chickenpox is be immunized against the disease.
The most common initial symptoms of chickenpox are headache, fever, stomach ache, and a loss of appetite, followed by an itchy rash of blisters, which usually lasts for 2 to 4 days.
This rash usually consists of hundreds of small, itchy, fluid-filled blisters starting on the face and spreading to cover the torso and scalp, and eventually the arms and legs. Blisters on the scalp are a strong indication that the rash is caused by chickenpox.
Usually after a day or two, and the blisters develop a cloudy appearance, and then become sores with a scab. At the same time, new waves of blisters continue to appear and develop.
Chickenpox blisters often appear in the mouth, in the vagina, and even on the eyelids.
Children suffering from other skin problems, such as eczema or recent sunburn, may get more than 1,500 chickenpox blisters, but in children without these skin conditions, usually only 250-500 blisters develop.
In most cases, chickenpox will not leave any scars on the skin unless they become infected with bacteria as a result of itching.
Although most people recover from chickenpox without suffering any serious symptoms or complications, a small percentage of people suffer from serious complications.
Chickenpox can cause various serious complications, including:
 Infection of the fetus by mothers infected with chickenpox.
 Severe infection of the newborn baby if they are exposed to the disease and their mothers are not immune.
 Secondary infection of the blisters and scarring of the skin can occur if the sufferer scratches the blisters.
 Encephalitis, Reye’s syndrome, pneumonia, myocarditis, cerebellar ataxia, and transient arthritis are other possible (but very rare) complications of chickenpox.
Each year in the United States, between 4,000 and 9,000 persons are hospitalised as a result of chickenpox, and up to 100 of people die as a direct result of the disease or the complications it caused.
Those at highest risk of complications are newborn babies, people with weakened immune systems, and adults. Although adults make up fewer than 5% of chickenpox cases in the United States, they account for half of the deaths from the disease.
