Chicken Pox
Chicken pox is an illness which usually occurs in childhood.
Children rarely are very ill, however infected adults can
develop severe complications. Chicken pox is a common infection
caused by a virus (varicella-zoster). The child may be unwell
for a day or two with fever, then redness in the skin followed
by widespread groups of small red bumps (purple or brown in
coloured skin) which over the next 2-4 days become blisters.
The blisters become white with pus for several days and then
dry to a dark scab. The spots are most common on the central
part of the body, head and neck and less common on the arms
and legs. The number of spots can vary.
Children aged 2-10 years are most commonly affected. The
fever and rash appear about two weeks after contact with an
infected person. Chicken pox is infectious from 2 days before
the rash appears until 5 days after it first appears. The
dried scabs are not infectious. Once a person has had chicken
pox, there is long lasting immunity and a second attack is
unlikely.
How is it prevented?
To prevent infecting others, children need to be kept away
from school, kindergarten or child care until all the skin
spots have crusted over. Although they are not part of the
routine immunisation program, vaccines for chicken pox are
available. These are given in one dose to children over the
age of 12 months. |
