Also called varicella, chickenpox is a common childhood disease that causes a distinctive rash that spreads across your entire body. Protect your family and deal with this highly contagious disease by becoming familiar with how to prevent it, recognize it and lessen the effects of the rash on the skin.
The Facts
Chickenpox develops as a result of an infection of varicella-zoster, a member of the herpes family of viruses. Although it typically occurs in children, chickenpox can also develop in adolescents and adults, often causing more severe symptoms. According to the National Institutes of Health, one of the characteristic symptoms of chickenpox is the appearance of a rash of fluid-filled blisters across the entire body. Once they burst, the itchy blisters dry up and crust over.
Time Frame
According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, chickenpox rash appears about 10 to 21 days after exposure to a chickenpox-infected individual. The rash generally appears first on the head, back or chest, progressing quickly to the other areas of the body. According to MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Harvard Medical School's primary pediatric teaching hospital, the rash typically consists of 250 and 500 individual lesions that develop over a period of about five days.
Significance
Presence of the chickenpox rash indicates that your child is contagious. In fact, according to the NIH, you're contagious up to two days before showing signs of the blister-like rash. Chickenpox might be spread by physical contact with the fluid that drains from the lesions, as well as having an infected person sneeze or cough on you. The NIH states that you remain contagious as long as your body has uncrusted pox blisters on it.
Comfort Measures
If you or your child develops chickenpox rash, do your best to keep scratching to a minimum. Scratching the chickenpox rash increases the likelihood of spreading the disease, as well as developing scars. Dabbing the individual rash spots with cotton balls dipped in calamine lotion may reduce the itchiness. Other comfort measures recommended by the Mayo Clinic include cool baths, wearing gloves and bland foods, if you have the blisters in your mouth.
Prevention
Chicken pox and its accompanying rash is preventable by a vaccine approved for use by the Federal Drug Administration in 1995. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vaccination provides complete protection from chickenpox for eight to nine out of every 10 immunized individuals. According to the CDC, states that vaccinated individuals who develop chickenpox generally show mild rashes, typically having 50 or fewer individual lesions. Typically, children should receive two doses of the vaccination, the first dose between 12 and 15 months of age, the second dose between 4 and 6 years of age.
