Chickenpox is 'incredibly contagious' and not 'trivial,' say experts. Here's what parents need to know.
The chicken pox vaccine became available in the U.S. in 1995 and, since then, cases of the virus in the U.S. have plummeted. But chicken pox still emerges from time to time.
Montana public health officials recently reported a 200% increase in chicken pox cases so far this year over last. At least half of the recent cases in kids were acquired from an adult family member who had shingles, which is a reactivation of the chicken pox virus in the body.
When chicken pox outbreaks do occur, it’s understandable that people will have questions about the disease. Here's what parents need to know.
What is chicken pox?
Chicken pox is an illness caused by the varicella zoster virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It causes a distinct itchy, blister-like rash that usually shows up on the chest, back and face before spreading over the entire body.
Chicken pox can cause up to 500 itchy blisters that dry up and form scabs in four or five days, the CDC says. It can be particularly serious in babies, adults and people with weak immune systems.
The virus used to be common in the U.S., with the CDC noting that more than 4 million people got the disease in the early 1990s. Of those, up to 13,000 were hospitalized and 150 died each year.
Chicken pox symptoms
Chicken pox has symptoms that change over time, with a rash that lasts about five to 10 days. The Mayo Clinic says that someone may have the following symptoms a day or two before the rash shows up:
Fever
Loss of appetite
Headache
Tiredness and a general feeling of being unwell
The rash may appear around day two and goes through different stages:
Raised bumps called papules break out over a few days
Small fluid-filled blisters called vesicles form about a day before breaking and leaking
Crusts and scabs cover the broken blisters
New bumps can show up over the course of several days. “What’s really classic is that the little bump develops into what looks like a water blister,” Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease expert at the University of Buffalo in New York, tells Yahoo Life. “But you can have all stages of chicken pox bumps at once.”
How do you get chicken pox?
Chicken pox spreads mostly through close contact with people who have the virus, Russo says. “The lesions themselves can be infectious,” he adds.
A person with the virus is considered contagious one to two days before the rash starts until all the chicken pox lesions have scabbed over, the CDC says.
As for the link with shingles, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life that chicken pox and shingles are caused by the same virus. "If you had chicken pox, the rash will eventually disappear but the virus never leaves your body — it goes into hibernation," he explains. “But it can come forward later and cause shingles.” In fact, you can’t get shingles if you haven’t had chicken pox.
The blisters that come with shingles contain what Schaffner says is the “reawakened chicken pox virus.” If someone who is unvaccinated has direct contact with a person who has shingles, they can get chicken pox.
How fast can chicken pox spread?
Chicken pox is “incredibly contagious” and can spread quickly in people who aren’t vaccinated, Schaffner says. In fact, the CDC says that if one person has the virus, up to 90% of the people close to that person who haven’t been vaccinated or previously had the virus will also become infected.
But Schaffner stresses that someone is “not likely to get chicken pox if they’ve been vaccinated.” (The CDC says the chicken pox vaccine is more than 90% effective after someone has had two doses.)
How serious is chicken pox?
“People think chicken pox is not such a big deal — it is a big deal,” Daniel Ganjian, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Life. Not only is chicken pox uncomfortable, but children can also develop complications such as chicken pox pneumonia and bacterial infections of the skin, he says.
Chicken pox can lead to the heart infection myocarditis and brain infection encephalitis, Russo says. It can even be deadly in rare cases.
There are also indirect consequences of having a child with chicken pox. When a kid gets chicken pox, they’re likely to be out of school or camp for two weeks or even longer. “That's going to be hard on the family,” Ganjian says. “Luckily, there is a vaccine. Kids should be vaccinated — it’s important.”
How is chicken pox treated?
Experts stress the importance of preventing chicken pox through vaccination. But if your or your child develops chicken pox, Russo says there are a few things you can do:
Apply calamine lotion to the bumps to soothe the itch.
Take a cool bath with baking soda, uncooked oatmeal or colloidal oatmeal to relieve itch.
Try to minimize scratching.
Wash your hands regularly, and especially after touching or scratching a blister.
Schaffner stresses that the effects of chicken pox shouldn’t be minimized. “There is a misconception that chicken pox is trivial, but it can be associated with very serious complications,” he says.
Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
