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Chickenpox Symptoms and Complications |
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Chickenpox is a very common disease amongst children, and is a highly
contagious disease. Chickenpox can be transmitted by direct contact as
well as by airborne transmission. There are several rare but serious
complications that can arise as a result of the disease. These require
immediate medical attention. The best method for avoiding chickenpox is
immunization against it.
The most common initial chickenpox
symptoms are fever, headache, stomach ache, and loss of appetite, followed
by an itchy rash of blisters generally lasting for 2 to 4 days. The rash
usually consists of many small, itchy, fluid-filled blisters that begin to
appear on the face and consequently spread until they cover the torso and
scalp, and eventually the arms and legs. It is the blisters on the scalp
that strongly indicate chickenpox is the cause.
Normally after a
day or two, the blisters develop a cloudy appearance, and then become
scab-covered sores. Simultaneously, new waves of blisters continually
appear and develop following the same life-cycle. Chickenpox blisters can
and often do appear in the mouth, in the vagina, and even on the eyelids.
Children who suffer from other skin problems, like eczema or who have had
a recent sunburn, may develop more than 1,500 chickenpox blisters.
However, absent these skin conditions, normally approximately 250-500
blisters develop. Generally, scars will not remain once the chickenpox has
healed unless the blisters become infected with bacteria as a result of
scratching.
Although the majority of people recover from chickenpox
without suffering any serious symptoms or complications, a small minority
of people do contract serious complications.
The various rare
complications from chickenpox include:
* Secondary infection of the
blisters and scarring of the skin can occur if the sufferer scratches the
blisters.
* Encephalitis
* Pneumonia
* Reye's syndrome
*
Transient arthritis
* Myocarditis
* Cerebellar ataxia
* Severe
infection of the newborn baby if they are exposed to the disease and their
mothers are not immune.
* Infection of the fetus by mothers infected
with chickenpox.
Between 4,000 and 9,000 persons are hospitalized
as a result of chickenpox in the United States each year. Additionally, up
to 100 people die as a direct result of the disease or related
complications. Newborn babies, adults, and people with weakened immune
systems have the highest risk of associated complications. Despite the
fact that adults make up fewer than 5% of chickenpox cases in the United
States, they make up half of the chickenpox-related deaths.
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