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Chicken pox in children CHICKEN POX IN CHILDREN
Chicken pox is caused by a specific virus which is highly contagious. Chicken pox is contracted through the air from a person who has the disease. Symptoms may appear within 12 to 21 days after being exposed to a person with chicken pox.
One attack of chicken pox makes a person immune for life, unless the attack is extremely mild. There is no vaccine available to prevent chicken pox.
Signs and symptoms
Chicken pox may start with the symptoms of a mild cold, but often a rash is the first sign. The rash worsens for three to four days and then heals in three to four days. The child is contagious from 24 hours before the rash appears until all blisters of the rash have dried. Fever can be low or as high as 40.6°C; fever is the worst on the third or fourth day after the rash appears.
The key symptom of chicken pox is the rash. Each new spot resembles an insect bite. Within hours the spot develops a small clear blister in the center, which may be hard to see without good light. Most blisters break and are replaced by a brown scab. The rash usually begins on the trunk and moves outward to the limbs and face. However, the rash may appear anywhere on the skin, including the scalp and the mucous membranes of the mouth, genitals, anus, and eyelids. It becomes quite itchy. The spots never appear in bunches or groups. New pox continue to appear hourly for three to four days.
Home care
Bed rest is not required, but your child should be isolated from other people. Cut the child's fingernails to lessen scratching. To reduce the itching, bathe your child in lukewarm water with cornstarch added, or apply calamine lotion to the skin. Give paracetamol, not aspirin, for fever or pain.
Precautions
• Do not give aspirin to a child with chicken pox. Aspirin use during chicken pox may be a factor causing Reye's syndrome, which is a life-threatening illness.
• Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) is a rare complication of chicken pox. If high fever, prostration (collapse), headache, vomiting, and convulsions occur, see your doctor immediately. • Chicken pox can be dangerous to newborns. If a young infant is exposed to chicken pox or develops chicken pox, call your doctor.
• Chicken pox is also dangerous to persons taking steroids or other immunosuppressant drugs and to children with immune mechanism deficiencies, which hinder the child's ability to fight infectious diseases. If such a child develops chicken pox or is exposed to it, call your doctor.
• Even if a child has already been exposed to someone with chicken pox, prevent any further exposure. The longer the exposure is, the more severe the attack of chicken pox will be.
• If the pox become infected, (showing an increasing redness, soreness, and formation of pus), call your doctor.
• The lymph glands of the neck, armpits, groin, and back of the skull ordinarily swell with chicken pox; however, if they become red and tender, they may be infected. Report this to your doctor.
• Do not apply calamine with phenol.
• When your child is bathed, pat the skin dry without breaking the blisters or disturbing the scabs to avoid scarring.
• If spontaneous bruises (bruises not caused by injuries) appear, or if ruptured blood vessels appear under the skin, see your doctor.
Medical treatment
If pox has become infected, your doctor will usually culture the infected pox and will treat your child with oral antibiotics for five to ten days. (Antibiotics do not influence the course of the chicken pox, however; they work only against the secondary infection.) If a child at high risk is exposed to chicken pox, your doctor will probably give a zoster immune globulin or a gamma globulin shot. If there are signs of encephalitis, your child will probably be hospitalized for tests and treatment. Spontaneous bleeding under the skin may be treated with oral medications, or your doctor may order hospitalization.
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