Chicken pox is a disease that affects mainly children. It is contagious and can be spread even through air. The main way of chicken pox transmission is by direct contact with the person infected by chicken pox. Like many other disease, chicken pox also has symptoms. These signs will appear about three weeks after infection with the virus that causes chicken pox. The reason for this is because the chicken pox virus has an incubation period. The proper medical term fro chicken pox is actually varicella, because the name of the virus that causes this children' s disease is called varicella zoster.
As I have said earlier, chicken pox has few symptoms. Some of them may not even be noticeable. The first signs of chicken pox set off very sudden and there are cases when the chicken pox patient will actually have no symptoms at all. A mild fever, some weakness and tiredness are the first chicken pox symptoms that you will feel, after the incubation period is over. Soon after this signs of chicken pox, a rash will start to appear on your skin. At first only some areas of your body will be affected by these tiny, red spots. The main target of chicken pox rash are at first the chest and back. Then, just in a couple of hours it will spread all over your body. Even places like the mouth and scalp will eventually be affected by chicken pox.
The next step that will happen in your child' s chicken pox case is that the rash will start to develop into blisters that are filled with fluid. Eventually, these chicken pox blisters will dry, form scabs and fall off. Children are more fortunate than adults when it come to chicken pox symptoms, as well as chicken pox complications caused by infection. If there is the case of infection in a child that suffers from chicken pox, rest assure that this will be a very mild case, with no side- effect. On the other hand, if an adult suffers from chicken pox, mainly because he/ she did not have this disease when being a child, things can get more complicated.
So, as you can see, chicken pox has few symptoms at the beginning of the disease. When the rash appears, and then the blisters, then things get more clear. However, you will not know if your child has been infected with chicken pox for more than two weeks, which is the incubation period of the chicken pox virus.
By: Groshan Fabiola