| Chicken Pox | |
| |
|
What is it?
Chicken Pox is a viral infection. It is spread by coming in contact with a person that has chicken pox. If you are infected with the virus, it will take 10-14 days before the symptoms show up. In children, chicken pox is usually a mild disease. However the same virus can cause shingles in an adult which can be much more serious.
What Does it Look Like?
For the first day or two you may just feel out of it and irritable. The symptoms start just like the common cold with sneezing and a runny nose. Usually the spots appear first on the chest. Chickenpox spots are about 3 millimeters across. They are soft red mounds and have a watery blister in the center. On the first two days there are usually only a few spots and as the days go by more spots continue to appear. In very bad cases the whole body can be covered with spots.
Don't Scratch!
The spots can be very itchy, but scratching will make it even worse. If the spots are scratched they will ooze a watery fluid and keep on itching.
The itchy scratchy stage may last for over a week, but gradually the symptoms
will subside. There are usually no side-effects or problems unless the spots
have been scratched too much. This could cause an infection and leave scars
called pock marks. These scars could last for years, that is why it is so
important not to scratch. When the chicken pox symptoms have gone you should
have an immunity to chicken pox, which means you will never get it again.
Next page > Stop This Itching! > Page
1, 2, 3