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The rash appears first on
the trunk and face, but can spread over the entire
body causing between 250 to 500 itchy blisters. Most
cases of chickenpox occur in persons less than 15
years old. Prior to the use of varicella vaccine, the
disease had annual cycles, peaking in the spring of
each year.
How do you get chickenpox?
Chickenpox is highly infectious and
spreads from person to person by direct contact or
through the air from an infected person’s coughing or
sneezing. A persons with chickenpox is contagious 1-2
days before the rash appears and until all blisters
have formed scabs. It takes from 10-21 days after
contact with an infected person for someone to develop
chickenpox.
What is the chickenpox illness like?
In children, chickenpox
most commonly causes an illness that lasts about 5-10
days. Children usually miss 5 or 6 days of school or
childcare due to their chickenpox. About half of all
children with chickenpox visit a health care provider
due to symptoms of their illness such as high fever,
severe itching, an uncomfortable rash, dehydration or
headache. In addition, about 1 child in 10 has a
complication from chickenpox serious enough to visit a
health care provider including infected skin lesions,
other infections, dehydration from vomiting or
diarrhea, exacerbation of asthma or more serious
complications such as pneumonia.
Certain groups of persons
are more likely to have more serious illness with
complications. These include adults, infants,
adolescents and people with weak immune systems from
either illnesses or from medications such a long-term
steroids.
What are the serious complications from
chickenpox?
Serious
complications from chickenpox include bacterial
infections which can involve many sites of the
body including the skin,
tissues |
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under the skin, bone,
lungs (pneumonia), joints and the blood. Other serious
complications are due directly to the virus infection
and include viral pneumonia, bleeding problems and
infection of the brain (encephalitis). Many people are
not aware that, before a vaccine was available, there
were approximately 11,000 hospitalizations and 100
deaths from chickenpox in the U.S. every year . One
child and one adult died each week. For information
about serious infections following chickenpox visit
the following site:
Can a healthy person with varicella die from
the disease?
Yes, many of the deaths
and complications from chickenpox occur in previously
healthy children and adults. From 1990 to 1994, before
there was a vaccine available, there were about 50
chickenpox deaths in children and 50 chickenpox deaths
in adults every year; most of these persons were
healthy or did not have a medical illness (such as
cancer) that placed them at higher risk of getting
severe chickenpox. Since 1999, states have been
encouraged to report chickenpox deaths to CDC. In 1999
and 2000, CDC received reports that showed that deaths
from chickenpox continue to occur in healthy,
unvaccinated children and adults. Most of the healthy
adults who died from chickenpox contracted the disease
from their unvaccinated children.
Yes, chickenpox can now
be prevented by vaccination.
Can you get chickenpox more than
once?
Yes, but it is uncommon
to do so. For most people, one infection is thought to
confer lifelong immunity.
Chickenpox
in children is usually not serious. Why not let
children get the disease?
It is never possible to
predict who will have a mild case of chickenpox and
who will have a serious or even deadly case of
disease. Now that there is a safe and effective
vaccine available, it is not worth taking this
chance.
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