Such an acute viral disease as chickenpox (chickenpox) can result in adults not only with mild complications in the form of a bacterial infection on the skin affected by viruses, but also with severe ones, in the form of pneumonia of a bacterial or viral nature, as well as encephalitis and encephalomyelitis – brain lesions .
Effects of chickenpox caused by exposure to the virus include:
Chickenpox tracheitis or laryngitis – occur as a result of damage to the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract with an abundant viral rash. Accompanied by a dry rough cough, pain along the trachea, difficulty breathing.
Varicella pneumonia of a viral nature – manifested by a long-lasting cough and a general violation of the patient’s condition. Their course is rarely severe, often patients endure them imperceptibly. The exception is severe viral pneumonia, which is characterized by high fever and constant hysterical cough, sometimes with an admixture of blood. Such conditions require immediate hospitalization of the patient and active antiviral treatment in a hospital setting.
Acute stomatitis – develop as a result of numerous chickenpox sores, leading to painful sensations when swallowing and chewing due to erosions on the soft and hard palate, oral mucosa and gums.
Painful inflammation of the foreskin and glans penis in men – manifests itself as a result of the development of a confluent blistering rash on the genitals. In women, the mucous membrane of the labia is involved in this process, vulvitis develops.
When the chickenpox virus affects nerve cells and meninges, chickenpox encephalitis and chickenpox meningitis develop. Patients may experience severe headache, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, convulsions, loss of consciousness, impaired sense of balance and coordination of movement. The neurological consequences of chickenpox, with proper treatment in a hospital, usually pass quickly, after a few weeks, complete regression and recovery completely occur.
There may be such complications of chickenpox as serous or purulent arthritis, myocarditis, nephritis, hepatitis. Very often there is a painful increase in regional lymph nodes.
However, most often the effects of chickenpox remain on the skin. Although the virus affects only the upper layer of the epidermis, patients, due to unbearable itching, tear off the formed crusts and comb the erosions they have closed. This leads to the fact that after the complete healing of the rashes, scars remain at the site of scratching. In most cases, after one to two months, they are completely smoothed out and gradually disappear. With the defeat of the deeper layers of the epidermis, the scars remain for life.
With reduced immunity, purulent-inflammatory diseases can develop, such as bullous streptoderma, abscesses, phlegmon, erysipelas, even if you strictly follow the rules of personal hygiene and all the doctor’s recommendations.
In place of bullous streptoderma caused by streptococci, large blisters with cloudy contents appear, rapidly increasing in size. After the opening of the bubbles, erosive surfaces are formed, growing along the periphery. With a mixed infection, the blisters are yellow and subsequently yellow crusts form. The rashes often merge and form a continuous crust on the skin. Treatment of such complications is usually long, often recurrent and is carried out strictly under the supervision of a physician.
Incubation period for chickenpox in adults
If you were in direct contact with a person who turned out to be sick with chickenpox after some time, then do not rush to panic, because a person becomes contagious 2-3 days before the appearance of rashes on the body, and they develop approximately 10-23 days after infection.
It is known that almost every infectious disease has a time of latent course, when the infection has already invaded the body, began to adapt and develop, but the clinical manifestations of the disease are still absent. This period is called the incubation period and it lasts until the first symptoms of the disease appear.
Usually the incubation period of chickenpox in adults consists of three stages:
Approximate start of the incubation period. It is considered from the moment of the first contact with a sick person, if the disease has already manifested itself in an acutely current form. Usually, one or two days are added to this date, which is necessary for the chickenpox virus to take root in the human body.
development of the incubation period. The causative agent at this time begins to actively multiply, its concentration in the body increases. First of all, the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract is affected, the virus adapts there and passes to neighboring cells, that is, the infection grows along the periphery.
End of the incubation period. When the amount of the pathogen reaches the required volume, it enters the bloodstream and is carried by the bloodstream throughout the body. At this stage, the virus penetrates the skin cells – the epidermis, causing the appearance of the first symptom characteristic of chickenpox – a skin rash. The human immune system begins to actively resist the infection and produce antibodies to the disease. As a result of this counteraction of viruses with antibodies, the patient’s body temperature rises sharply, chills appear, and general malaise.
The duration of the incubation period averages from one to three weeks (it cannot be less than one week, but can last more than three weeks). The difference in the duration of the incubation period depends on a number of reasons, and the volume of the chickenpox virus in the body at the time of infection, the degree of pathogenicity of this type of virus, and the state of the immune system play a huge role in this. The place of infection of a person is also of great importance, since a much larger number of pathogens are usually present indoors than outdoors.
As clinical studies show, it is not necessary that the incubation period will proceed in three stages, the clinical manifestations of the disease can begin in any of them. It is believed that seven days after contact with a patient with chickenpox, a person himself can serve as a source of infection, since it is not known exactly how quickly the virus multiplies in the body.
Chickenpox has one characteristic feature that makes it very dangerous for others: after the prescribed three weeks of the incubation period and in the absence of obvious clinical manifestations of the disease, a person can begin to lead a normal life, thinking that the danger of infection for others has passed.
There are known cases of the course of the disease in a secretive form, when a small amount of a rash may appear on the face and body of the patient, insufficient to suspect one of the symptoms of chickenpox. However, such a patient is able at the same time to infect others.
The end of the incubation period is considered the beginning of the manifestation of the first signs of the disease, while most often the body temperature rises and a rash appears, which is a direct indication for isolation of the patient.