Chicken Pox Symptoms is basically a viral infection which is caused by a virus varicella-zoster which in result causes small rash and blisters which are filled with fluid and leads to itchiness or irritation. Those people who do not get infected by chickenpox or do not get vaccinated against it in their lifetime are very contagious towards it. On average mostly all of the people in their life till they reach adulthood got infected by it and sometimes it leads to severe complications. Although, the number of cases and number of hospitalized people have been dramatically down after the introduction of the vaccine.
In most cases, chickenpox is just a normal disease that occurs for some time and got cured on its own but sometimes it leads to complications that are harmful so it is much better to get vaccinated against chickenpox, this vaccine is completely safe to use and highly effective in nature which also reduces down the severe complications.
When any disease occurs the first things that he wants to know are signs and symptoms so that we will get alert in advance. Let us have a look over common symptoms of chickenpox that occurs in a patient :
When we, first of all, get infected by the virus it does not react or show activities instantly although the symptoms, first of all, occur after the 10 to 21 days of virus exposure. The first indication of chickenpox is rash which occurs on whole over the body. The other signs and symptoms which normally appears around one or two days before the rash are –
* Fever
* Loss of appetite
* Tiredness and malaise which is a feeling of unease or unwell
* Headache
When after the rashes of chickenpox appeared on your body it, later on, passed from the three stages
* In the first stage the raised pink-colored red bumps appear on to the whole body which gets break out in several days.
* After these bumps hit-filled up with fluid blisters which are formed up from these bumps after one or two days of breaking or leaking.
* The last stage of it is crust or scabs in which the fluid of blisters got dried and takes several days in healing the skin under blisters.
Up to several days, the bumps got appeared on your body at regular intervals, so you need to pass through all three stages of this rash which are bumps, blisters, and scabs. When the infection occurs in your body then the virus got spread for at least 48 hours before rashes appear on the body and till that you are very contagious until the spots crust over.
In healthy children, the disease is normally mild but in some cases it got severe and the entire body got covered by lessons including throat, eyes, and mucous membrane or genital parts.
Chicken Pox Symptoms in Adults
As chickenpox can appear at any stage of your age which shows variations in signs and symptoms of it. So, now we are going to know about the symptoms that occur in adults when they got infected by the virus.
Most people thought that chickenpox only occurs once in childhood and later they will not be infected from it but no, you are wrong as it is an infection which can occur again in your life at any stage whether you are a child or an adult.
If you are an adult and do not get chickenpox then you can get affected by it and if you didn’t have vaccinated against it in your life then it can also lead to severe complications for you. The chickenpox virus normally gets transmitted by any contact from the infected person either direct or indirect, like when the person sneezes or coughs.
When you got a contract to the chickenpox at the adult stage it generally leads to complications with high risk, especially those people who have a weak immune system or going through treatments like chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant, organ transplant, or infected by HIV are at the great risk of infection which can lead to complications.
Let us come to know about the symptoms that occur in adults while infected with chickenpox :
As we know that the symptoms of chickenpox that shows in adults are although similar to that of children but they are more severe in comparison :
* Fever, headache, body ache can appear before one or two days of the appearance of rashes.
* Now, after 2 days of rash or appearance of these red spots got converted into it by vesicles which first appears on the trunk, face, and scalp and later on spreading to the entire body, if you try to scratch these spots then it can leave to permanent scars on your body. Before the healing process starts these itchy and irritative blisters get dry and turn up into crust.
Complications in Adults: Chicken Pox Symptoms
These complications of chickenpox in adults can occur due to the exposure of the virus due to the superimposed infection of bacteria over the body. These complications include –
* Bacterial infection of bones, tissues, skin, soft tissue, joints, sepsis, or bloodstreams.
* Pneumonia
* Inflammation of brain called encephalitis
* Syndrome of toxic shock
Chicken Pox Symptoms in Kids
As in the previous time, this disease was very common among children but now after the vaccine against chickenpox has introduced the number of complications or patients has been decreased gradually as they are immunized against this virus.
As it is spread by the direct or indirect contact with the patient of chickenpox and similarly if any old person is suffering from shingles than the children or kids who are having weak immune system or do not immunize against vaccine can develop chickenpox by touching or having contact to these shingles although adults do not get this from shingles children can. Let us come to know about the symptoms which occur in the children –
- Normally the problem gets appeared after 2 or 3 weeks of the contact with the virus.
- In children, this problem of chickenpox normally starts from the feeling of tiredness and lethargy which is followed by fever and swollen glands.
- Next, after three to five days the rash breaks out on the body.
- First of all in appearance this rash appears as a red spot which later on got converted into fluid-filled blisters on the chest, tummy, back or face and very soon it got spread on your whole body including mouth, ears, eyes or genital part of the body.
- These blisters are very itchy in nature and the new blisters got on the body and tell old one turns into scan after being dried. These scabs take around several weeks for getting fall off.
- The symptoms of chickenpox are very mild in children if we compare it with adults.
Chicken Pox symptoms in Infants
The infants which are suffering from chickenpox develop fluid-filled blisters that normally start appearing from the chest and then get spread on the track arms and legs of the baby.
As chickenpox is a mild disease but this does not mean taking it lightly as it can also cause a serious problem which can also get into the brain, liver of the infant and can cause serious illness which in turn result in death also.
In most the cases, the time duration of chickenpox is generally about 4 to 7 days, the blisters pop out and scabs got over your body. Let us come to know about some symptoms which occur in your infant when they got exposed to chickenpox :
If infants the chickenpox is normally mistaken or confused with the smallpox as the rash is a classic symptom which is almost the same as smallpox which has been eradicated.
If you find that the body of your infant is having blisters like rash which are getting started from the chest and then moves to the extreme level of chickenpox then, your child is having a great chance of suffering from chickenpox.
As every parent is very careful with their infant so they want to know that, is there any test that can diagnose the problem before it develops.
In the past time, doctors were only able to detect chickenpox by having a look overrash on the body as text rash of chickenpox were so clear and distinctive that the doctors become confident about the disease just by having a look over it.
But nowadays the symptoms or appearance of chickenpox has become so rare that it has now been very different and can not easily be confirmed by just having a look overrash so, for examining the disease the doctor can scratch a blister of your child and take that fluid in the lab for the test of varicella virus and then confirm the positive or negative effects of chickenpox.
Signs of Chicken Pox
If you are vaccinated against chickenpox then it is very obvious and common that you can develop this disease so it is better to get vaccinated but still if you are thinking that you are going to have the infection then you will become alert in advance and can take proper care or action against the disease.
So, forgetting the advanced knowledge you should be aware of the signs which are shown by the virus before infection normally begins on its high level by properly and deeply analyzing these symptoms you can make sure that are you having chickenpox or not. These typical signs of chickenpox are :
- You can develop a high fever before 1 or 2 days of the development of chickenpox rashes.
- You will feel an extreme level of tiredness in your body.
- You will not feel any hunger which leads to the loss of appetite.
- A severe pain in your head which makes it difficult to do any mental work.
So, these are some signs which occur to everyone before the symptoms appear on their body so , by having a clear examination you can detect the problem and can take some actions toward it.
Closure,
So, this is all about the signs and symptoms of chickenpox from which you should be aware. Although, chickenpox does not require any medication a little carelessness can lead to complications which can even turn into death in rare cases.
If we take research on chickenpox it has been concluded that every year around or more than 4 million people got suffered from chickenpox from which around 10 people die annually due to chickenpox but before the introduction of vaccine the number of deaths due to chickenpox per year were around 100.
So, vaccination has been proven a very important and effective method of reducing the rate and death of people from chickenpox. You can easily prevent yourself from getting this disease by simply avoiding any contact from the person who is already suffering from it. Chickenpox is a communicable disease that only occurs due to contact not on its own and in the field of prevention from it the vaccine is best nothing has come till now more effective than the vaccine.
This vaccine not only immunizes your body from chickenpox although if you got or discover chickenpox then due to the vaccine you will not lead to complications and will feel low level or mild chickenpox with few spots or blisters on the body and a normal fever.
If you see any complication or any further bacterial infection in your blisters then you need to contact your doctor immediately and tell him about your problem so that you will get control over the infection.
In all terms, it is very necessary to take proper care of chickenpox until the blisters got converted into scans and make sure that you do not scratch your blisters otherwise it will lead your body with permanent scars which are not gone easily.