What is Chickenpox?
Chickenpox is a viral infection which is caused by varicella zoster virus. This is a highly contagious disease for people who have never had this infection in their lives. Once a person gets infected, he usually develops immunity towards the virus for rest of his life. This infection is most common in children. The virus, after causing primary infection in children, becomes dormant inside the body for years. It may again reactivate to cause shingles of herpes zoster in the later decades of life, when the immune system becomes weakened due to any reason.
Chickenpox causes itchy rashes on the skin, with fluid filled blisters. Today, vaccine for chickenpox is available in most of the countries to protect children from this contagious and painful disease.
Chickenpox is a self limiting disease, but the symptoms produced are very painful and debilitating. Homeopathic treatment from the best homeopathy doctor can be helpful in reducing the intensity and severity of the symptoms and prevent it to become complicated.
Causes
Chickenpox is caused due to varicella zoster virus. It is highly contagious condition and easily spreads by coming in contact with the infected person.
The person suffering is contagious from one to two days before the appearance of blisters, till all the blisters are crusted. Virus can spread by coming in contact with the infected person’s saliva or fluid from the blisters. The infection can also spread when the infected person sneezes or coughs infront of the healthy individual
Signs & Symptoms
The incubation period of varicella zoster is about 7 to 21 days. It means that the infection takes this number of days to develop first symptoms of chickenpox.
Other sign and symptoms which are commonly seen before the appearance of typical rash are-
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Headache
- Tiredness and malaise
These symptoms remain for about 2-3 days before the rashes begin to appear. Once the rashes begin to develop, they go through three phases before recovery-
- There develops red or pink bumbs called papules all over the body
- The bumps become small fluid filled blisters called vessicles, which break and leak
- There happens formation of crusts and scabs over the broken blisters, which takes several days to heal
Chickenpox rashes show pleomorphism, meaning that there is presence of blisters from all the stages at the same time on the body. New bumps and blisters keep forming throughout the time of the infection.
The rashes are very itchy before the formation of crusts and scabs. The rashes may take upto 14 days to completely heal and disappear.
Risk Factors
Most of the people who never had this infection, and the ones who are not vaccinated are at highest risk of getting infected. People who have had the infection once during their lifetimes become immune to the virus.
If the person still gets infected after being vaccinated, the symptom produced are usually mild in forms, with much less rashes. It is rare for a person to get infected twice during his lifetime.
Complications
Chicken pox usually do not cause any complications, but rarely the disease may become severe and produce complications like-
- Encephalitis
- Dehydration
- Pneumonia
- Bacterial infections of the skin, soft tissues, bones, joints, etc
- Toxic shock syndrome
- Reye’s syndrome in children who take aspirin during chickenpox
Diagnosis
Doctor can easily diagnose chickenpox from the typical rashes that appear on the skin in this disease.
Still, if the doctor has some doubts, he may go for laboratory tests, like some blood tests and fluid sample culture for confirming the diagnosis.
Chickenpox – Homeopathic Treatment
Homeopathy has always been very useful in reducing the intensity of symptoms during chickenpox. Homeopathy strengthens the immunity power of the body and helps fight the infection more efficiently.
The best homeopathy doctor can provide the patient rapid relief from the itching and sometimes burning sensation that the blisters of chickenpox cause. Homeopathic medicines also promote rapid healing of the blisters and do not allow the rashes to leave scars on the body of the patient.
