It reduces the severity of symptoms but does not cure the disease. There is no cure for chickenpox, but a vaccine is available for VZV. People should avoid close contact with people known to have chickenpox, avoid sharing objects with them, isolate any household members with chickenpox from others, and disinfect surfaces an infected person may have touched. Among unvaccinated people who develop chickenpox, a few people may have more severe symptoms.
Adults are more susceptible to complications than children, but even in adults, they are rare. Pregnant women, newborns, and infants up to 4 weeks old, as well as those with weakened immune systems, are more likely to experience complications.
People who are pregnant have a slightly higher risk of developing pneumonia from chickenpox. There is also a danger of passing the infection to the fetus. If infection occurs during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, there is a higher risk of congenital varicella syndrome.
This can cause scarring in the fetus, as well as eye problems, brain drainage, and shortened arms or legs. If the infection happens later in pregnancy, the virus can transmit directly to the fetus and the baby can be born infected. If a person becomes exposed to varicella during pregnancy, it is important to talk to a doctor right away.
In cases when a person is not vaccinated and is not sure whether they have had chickenpox as a child, they can get a laboratory test to determine whether they did have the virus in the past. People who have had chickenpox as children will not get the disease again.
This is because they develop immunity to the virus. If a person who has been exposed to someone with chickenpox is not sure if they had the illness as a child, getting tested can help them know if they are at risk for getting the disease. Another reason to get tested is to help a doctor distinguish the symptoms of chickenpox from other conditions with similar symptoms.
One of those conditions may be shingles. In some cases, a doctor may think that a person has shingles and not chickenpox. When a person has chickenpox and recovers, the virus stays in their body and becomes dormant. Later in life, in situations of low immunity, the virus can reactivate as shingles.
People who have active shingles cannot give other people shingles. However, they can infect others with chickenpox if those people have not already had the illness, are not vaccinated, or are immunocompromised.
Usually, people will experience an intensely painful rash that looks like a patch of raised dots and follows the path of a nerve on one side of the body. This may be on the face or the trunk of the body, but may also occur in other areas. The rash may be itchy. In addition, a person may also feel stabbing pain. Later, the rash will turn into fluid-filled blisters that crust over within several days. When a person gets shingles, they may also get a fever or a headache.
Additional symptoms may include nausea, diarrhea, upset stomach, and chills. You can get the chickenpox vaccine on the NHS if there's a risk of harming someone with a weakened immune system if you spread the virus to them.
For example, a child can be vaccinated if 1 of their parents is having chemotherapy. You can also pay for the vaccine at some private clinics or travel clinics.
You can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles if you have not had chickenpox before. When you get chickenpox, the virus stays in your body.
The virus can be triggered again if your immune system is weak. This causes shingles. This can happen because of stress, certain conditions, or treatments like chemotherapy. Page last reviewed: 27 November Next review due: 27 November It's important to trust your instincts and get medical help if you need it. Important You'll need to stay away from school, nursery or work until all the spots have crusted over.
This is usually 5 days after the spots appeared. Your risk of becoming infected with the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox is higher if you haven't already had chickenpox or if you haven't had the chickenpox vaccine. It's especially important for people who work in child care or school settings to be vaccinated. Most people who have had chickenpox or have been vaccinated against chickenpox are immune to chickenpox.
A few people can get chickenpox more than once, but this is rare. If you've been vaccinated and still get chickenpox, symptoms are often milder, with fewer blisters and mild or no fever.
Chickenpox is normally a mild disease. But it can be serious and can lead to complications including:. Low birth weight and limb abnormalities are more common among babies born to women who are infected with chickenpox early in their pregnancy. When a mother is infected with chickenpox in the week before birth or within a couple of days after giving birth, her baby has a higher risk of developing a serious, life-threatening infection.
If you're pregnant and not immune to chickenpox, talk to your doctor about the risks to you and your unborn child. If you've had chickenpox, you're at risk of a complication called shingles. The varicella-zoster virus remains in your nerve cells after the skin infection has healed.
Many years later, the virus can reactivate and resurface as shingles — a painful cluster of short-lived blisters. The virus is more likely to reappear in older adults and people who have weakened immune systems. The pain of shingles can last long after the blisters disappear.
This is called postherpetic neuralgia and can be severe. The shingles vaccine Shingrix is recommended for adults who have had chickenpox. Shingrix is approved and recommended for people age 50 and older, including those who've previously received another shingles vaccine Zostavax. Zostavax, which isn't recommended until age 60, is no longer sold in the United States. The chickenpox varicella vaccine is the best way to prevent chickenpox. When the vaccine doesn't provide complete protection, it significantly lessens the severity of chickenpox.
Young children. In the United States, children receive two doses of the varicella vaccine — the first between ages 12 and 15 months and the second between ages 4 and 6 years — as part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule.
The vaccine can be combined with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, but for some children between the ages of 12 and 23 months, the combination may increase the risk of fever and seizure from the vaccine.
Discuss the pros and cons of combining the vaccines with your child's doctor. Unvaccinated adults who've never had chickenpox and are at high risk of exposure. This includes health care workers, teachers, child care employees, international travelers, military personnel, adults who live with young children and all women of childbearing age.
Adults who've never had chickenpox or been vaccinated usually receive two doses of the vaccine, four to eight weeks apart.
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