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It is said that once a person gets smallpox, he or she becomes immune for life. Unfortunately, this statement is not true. A 97-year-old British woman died of complications following chickenpox. The woman fell ill despite the fact that she suffered the disease as a child.
The Independent states that the cause of the woman’s death was a heart attack, caused by a late diagnosis of smallpox. The 97-year-old was diagnosed with smallpox only a week after her symptoms appeared. Initially, the woman had a fever and complained of nausea. Despite the fact that, after a few days, the woman’s skin developed changes characteristic of smallpox, the doctors ruled out that the patient had already had it as a child.
According to the medical magazine BMJ, although one person getting chickenpox twice is extremely rare, it is possible because there are five genotypes of the virus that causes the disease. It is possible that a person who has had smallpox from one of the strains of the virus will get it again after contact with another strain.
Smallpox what is it?
Chicken pox is an infectious disease caused by varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The contagious agent of chickenpox is simply a person. Chickenpox occurs mainly in children in whom it is relatively mild. In addition, it may occur in adolescents and adults, whose course is more severe and causes more complications. The chickenpox virus is transmitted by airborne droplets and air, even up to several dozen meters! This is why the condition is called chicken pox.
Chickenpox infection occurs 1-2 days before the appearance of the first rash and vesicles, but we stop infecting others when scabs appear on the vesicles, which fall off spontaneously at the end. The incubation period of chickenpox (the time from the attack of the body by the virus to the first symptoms of chickenpox) is approximately 14-21 days.
How to recognize?
Chickenpox may begin with the heralds of malaise, muscle aches, headaches, fever, diarrhea. Over time, there is a rash of eruptions – small red spots located irregularly on the skin of the torso and face, and – unlike other rash diseases – on the scalp. Some of them disappear, while the rest transform quickly and go through the next stages of development within a dozen or so hours – from a pink spot through a papule, to the appearance of a delicate bubble surrounded by a red rim. There is a clear liquid in the vesicles at first, and then it becomes more cloudy. With the development of chicken pox, the bubbles collapse in a funnel-like manner, drying into scabs, adhering quite firmly to the substrate. After the scabs fall off, scars remain, sometimes surrounded by a brown border. In severe cases of chickenpox, the skin lesions appear as a hemorrhagic rash.
The presence of a rash in several forms is very characteristic for chickenpox. This causes a variety of skin lesions, as there are eruptions on the skin at different levels of development.
The rash accompanying chickenpox causes itching, and scratching the scabs can lead to the formation of cavities in the epidermis.
How to heal?
Treatment of chickenpox is only symptomatic, which consists in lowering the fever and relieving the unbearable itching of the rash with prescribed anti-itching agents. it is advisable to use powdered products. The effects of scratching can be reduced by cutting your child’s nails short and wearing cotton gloves at night. The risk of bacterial superinfections can be minimized by frequent baths, changing bed linen with the addition of special antiseptic liquids, and frequent change of clothes.
As with any disease, so with chickenpox, your child should be at rest. Give him plenty of fluid frequently and eat a healthy diet. The appearance of complications after chickenpox requires hospitalization.
After the treatment of smallpox is completed, proper skin care is essential. For this purpose, it is worth reaching for Mediskin Medisil Cream, a hypoallergenic regenerating cream for irritations, which cleans, moisturizes, softens and smoothes the skin.