How does chickenpox begin and develop?

How chickenpox begins and develops Chickenpox is an acute infectious disease characterized by a profuse itchy rash on the skin and surface of the mucous membranes. It does not appear instantly: the incubation period can range from 10 days to 3 weeks.

Chickenpox is highly contagious. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with a carrier. Children often get sick in entire groups (groups in kindergarten or classes at school). We will tell you how to recognize the disease in the shortest possible time to prevent its spread.

What causes chickenpox?

The causative agent of this disease is human herpesvirus type 3. It belongs to the subfamily of alphaherpesviruses, which have the following features:

a wide range of hosts (humans and animals);
short reproductive cycle;
rapid reproduction;
volatility;
rapid decay of affected cells;
death under the influence of UV rays.

When the chickenpox virus enters the human body, for the first three to four days it is contained within blisters covering the skin. On the eighth day it ceases to be detected. Outside a living organism, type 3 herpesvirus dies in 15 minutes.

The rash usually appears 48 hours after infection. The carrier remains infectious for another five days. Infection occurs by airborne droplets. Contact-household infection is also possible.

Cetirizine

Doctors often prescribe Cetirizine (Zyrtec) for chickenpox. For children - in drops, for adults - in tablets. The drug relieves symptoms well in itchy allergic dermatoses, has no contraindications and is usually well tolerated.

Cetirizine

JSC VERTEX, Russia

seasonal and year-round allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis (itching, sneezing, rhinorrhea, lacrimation, conjunctival hyperemia);
urticaria (including chronic idiopathic urticaria); hay fever (hay fever); itching; angioedema (Quincke's edema); itchy allergic dermatoses. from 36

522

Like
Write a review

How to recognize chickenpox?

To get sick, two conditions are enough: to be near someone with chickenpox and not have a history of it. Everyone gets infected with it, regardless of age and immunity strength. Nothing can be done during the incubation period. All we have to do is wait for the first signs:

temperature rise to 38-39 degrees;
general malaise;
decreased appetite;
the appearance of a characteristic rash.

At first, the rash is rare and looks like spots or pimples. Under no circumstances should you squeeze them out: the scar will be very deep. The volume of the rash gradually increases, covering all parts of the body.

In the early stages, chickenpox can be mistaken for an allergic reaction. But contact dermatitis rarely spreads throughout the body and never develops into blisters.

In this case, the person feels severe itching. Scratching chickenpox is also not advisable. This will not bring relief, but there is a risk of getting a lot of scars on the skin or causing a secondary infection.

Folk remedies

There are various ways to get rid of itching due to chickenpox and in traditional medicine:

At high temperatures, it is advisable to drink cranberry juice, viburnum drink, rosehip infusion, and sea buckthorn tea. Strawberry juice saturates the body well with nutrients and has a pronounced antimicrobial effect.
Bath with chamomile. 5 tbsp. Pour a tablespoon of inflorescences (dry or fresh) into a liter of hot water, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for a quarter of an hour, strain. Add the decoction to the filled bath. The procedure takes 10 minutes, perform twice a day.
Tea tree oil. The only essential oil allowed for direct application to the skin, without conductive oil. If you treat all elements of the rash with tea tree oil using a cotton swab, this will significantly relieve itching and scabies. This procedure promotes disinfection and speedy healing of wounds.
Mix equally chamomile flowers, coltsfoot grass, chicory grass, calendula flowers, burdock root and immortelle flowers. Brew the prepared mixture with a dose of 40 g with half a liter of boiling water. Let it brew in a thermos for 8 hours. Take 4 times a day, a third of a glass.
Grind the calendula herb. Heat 60 g of calendula, previously brewed in a liter of water. Pour the strained broth into the bath and bathe the patient for a quarter of an hour in the morning and evening. Do not rub the skin.

Periods of chickenpox

Quite a long time passes between infection with the herpes virus and complete recovery. There are four periods:

incubation (up to three weeks);
prodromal (up to two days before the appearance of rashes);
rashes (several waves for two to five days);
crust formation.

During the prodromal period, the patient experiences general malaise. It is expressed in weakness, nausea, headache. Sometimes the temperature rises to 38-39 degrees, and vomiting occurs. In some patients, there is no prodromal period, and rashes immediately appear some time after infection.

Chickenpox in adults causes severe complications. They do not appear immediately. Some appear after the tenth day of the disease, others after a month.

Prevention

It is very difficult to prevent the occurrence of chickenpox and this is due, first of all, to the high degree of contagiousness of the disease.

Preventive measures to combat it in adults should include:

Vaccination - the vaccine is not administered to everyone, but only to certain groups of people whose bodies are most at risk of infection;
Isolation of patients - those infected with the virus must remain in isolation for 2-3 weeks;
Emergency prevention - anti-chickenpox immunoglobulin or a live vaccine is injected into the body.

The latter method of preventing infection is effective only if the live vaccine was used no later than 96 hours after contact with the patient. Ideally, use time is 48-72 hours.

If the vaccine is taken after the specified period, no positive effect can be expected. Emergency preventive measures are used most often in relation to pregnant women who have exposed themselves to the risk of infection. In this case, only immunoglobulin is introduced into the body.

How does chickenpox occur in children?

Chickenpox is considered a childhood disease, since it mainly affects children of preschool and primary school age. In children, the illness period is relatively short (about 10 days), while in adults it can last three weeks or more.

During this time, the rash goes through several stages:

erythematous spots;
nodular rash (papule);
ulcers (pustules);
crusts.

Recovery occurs when all the scabs fall off. Until this point, the person is still contagious and can pass the chickenpox virus to others. The first wave of rashes usually passes quickly, but it is replaced by several more.

As a rule, there are no complications in children. The main thing is that the baby does not scratch the rash to avoid secondary infection and scar formation. Severe disease occurs in newborns. When the first signs of chickenpox appear in an infant, you should immediately call a doctor.

Diagnostics

It is not difficult to recognize typical chickenpox after a thorough physical examination, since the disease has a classic clinical picture. The atypical form can be confused with herpes simplex, bullous dermatosis, eczema, congenital syphilis, pyoderma; laboratory tests will help differentiate chickenpox from other infections.

What tests need to be taken:

clinical blood test to determine the level of ESR;
microscopic examination of fluid from vesicles;
blood chemistry;
serological tests - RSK, RTGA.

In severe cases of the disease, a general urine test, ultrasound of the abdominal organs, CT scan of the brain, and electrocardiogram are additionally prescribed to identify which organs have been affected by the virus.

Atypical forms of chickenpox in adults

In adults, chickenpox is accompanied by symptoms of intoxication of the body. Atypical clinical forms are also possible:

Rudimentary. The rash is either absent or does not develop beyond the blotchy stage.
Hemorrhagic. A bloody impurity appears in the blisters, and small hemorrhages appear on unaffected areas of the skin. Black crusts form.
Bullous. Along with the usual chickenpox, other blisters appear. They are filled with a cloudy yellowish liquid and take a long time to dry. If such blisters burst prematurely, the area of skin underneath them becomes wet for a long time and does not heal.
Gangrenous. The tissues inside the blisters die, and ulcers form underneath them. Cleaning of pus is often required.

The generalized form of chickenpox is considered separately. It is characterized by damage to internal organs. It is difficult to tolerate and there are deaths. At risk are patients taking steroid hormones.

Causes and features of pathogen transmission

The disease spreads quickly and easily indoors, since the causative agent, the herpes virus, can be transmitted through coughing, sneezing, i.e. by air. A greater number of chickenpox cases occur in preschool children. Children staying in the same group room of a kindergarten get sick faster, although the virus is able to penetrate with air flow into neighboring rooms. Less commonly, the pathogen is transmitted through toys or third parties, since it is unstable in the external environment.

The peak of the disease occurs in spring/autumn, together with the peak of colds. The pathogen is transmitted by the bloodstream to the epithelial layers of the skin, where it begins to actively multiply. There are subjective signs of the onset of the disease: irritability, tearfulness of the child, the appearance of a common rash similar to hives. Due to the mobility of the virus in the blood, internal organs may be affected. The mucous membrane is an excellent “soil” for the virus; as a result, small hemorrhages form at the site of the papules. Immunity after the disease is stable (except for early infection by the virus).

Adults who did not have chickenpox as children may not get sick at all if they have a strong immune system. But when infected, adults become seriously ill, with a high rise in body temperature, and subsequently scars and visible dents form in place of the papules.

Features of the pathogen:

papular fluid contains DNA;
the virus is deactivated at a temperature of 45 to 50 degrees. It is enough to soak the patient’s clothes in hot water for half an hour to destroy the virus. Disinfectants should not be used when processing children's clothing; they can cause increased itching and rashes;
the virus is not destroyed by freezing; after defrosting, the pathogen is still active. But it does not tolerate sunlight well, so when disinfecting a room, you can use ultraviolet lamps;
the pathogen can be transmitted through the placenta from a sick pregnant woman to the fetus, as a result of which there may be damage to the fetus that does not threaten its life;
in exceptional cases, chickenpox is contracted twice, if the first time occurred before the age of one year, when the child’s own immunity is not yet “working.”

Symptoms of the disease

On average, up to two weeks after the virus enters the body, the child feels normal. Then the body temperature rises sharply and quickly, and at the same time rashes appear on the head under the hair, cheeks, near the lips, and on the mucous membranes of the mouth. Due to the rash, the child becomes restless, the unpleasant tingling sensations in the papules a little later turn into severe itching, and the baby’s condition worsens.

Development of chickenpox

Initially, only a rash is visible on the skin, similar in appearance to miliaria. Then characteristic small spots become visible, in place of which bubbles with transparent contents - vesicles - form. There is always a small border around the bubble - a hyperemic halo. After a few hours, the liquid in the bubble becomes cloudy, and even later the bubble bursts and the liquid begins to flow out of it. If the vesicle is not touched, then after two or three days it begins to dry out. A dense crust forms from the center to the edges of the bubble, and after the crust has completely dried, the skin remains pink, but without scars, smooth to the touch. If a child actively scratches the rash, indentations may form, as after a BCG vaccination.

The bubbles do not appear all at once, but several days apart, so quarantine for chickenpox lasts up to three weeks. During this time, rashes in different stages of development may be visible on the skin - from spots to crusts. To treat chickenpox, doctors still recommend using a solution of brilliant green, which disinfects and dries watery blisters. Yes, it is ugly, the child will walk around with spots, but it is effective in preventing suppuration from scratching and the rapid healing of wounds.

If the course of the disease is severe, with a large amount of rash, the child is prescribed medications that lower the temperature and antihistamines. Acyclovir is effective only if used in a timely manner; if the disease is protracted, it should not be used. Sometimes doctors prescribe immunostimulants, for example, cycloferon liniment - it successfully replaces brilliant green. The drug facilitates the course of the disease and prevents the development of purulent infection when the blisters are scratched.

How to help with chickenpox?

There is currently no cure for chickenpox. Usually the disease goes away on its own, and therapy is limited to smearing the rash with aniline dyes with bactericidal properties. A solution of brilliant green (“zelenka”) is usually used. You can take an antipyretic to relieve your general condition.

To relieve itching use:

solution of iodine tincture (2-3%);
solution of potassium permanganate (1:5000);
hydrogen peroxide (3%);
glycerol.

In some cases, antihistamines can help relieve itching. But you should not take them uncontrollably: it is better to call a doctor at home and determine acceptable medications. Showering is allowed, but without a washcloth to avoid damaging the bubbles. The same applies to the use of towels - after water procedures, you need to carefully pat your body dry with a cloth.

Calamine

Calamine topical lotion is based on zinc and calamine oxide. The medicine for chickenpox relieves itching, irritation and inflammation well, and works as an antiseptic. “Calamine” is also as harmless as possible, but is not suitable for those who have individual sensitivity to zinc.

Calamine

The drug Calamine lotion is used in dermatological practice, in the treatment of diseases accompanied by itchy skin.
Therefore, the lotion is prescribed for the complex treatment of chickenpox, eczema, and psoriasis. Used for dermatitis, acne, herpes. Used in the treatment of skin rashes, herpes zoster, urticaria, rubella, etc. from 219

777

Like
Write a review

Complications of chickenpox

In most cases, this disease is not dangerous; children tolerate it easily. The only threat is infection of the wound when combing with dirty hands. In such cases, staphylococci or streptococci may be ingested and a purulent infection may develop.

The chickenpox virus does not disappear from the body after recovery. Temporarily neutralized, it is localized in the spinal cord. As years pass, it can become more active and cause shingles.

In adults, complications may include:

stomatitis (if a rash appears in the mouth);
conjunctivitis (on the eyelids);
inflammation of the middle ear.

The greatest danger is chickenpox pneumonia with a mortality rate of 40%. The consequences of infection with the chickenpox virus can manifest themselves in the form of neurological disorders, heart disease, and joint damage. A month after recovery, there is a risk of developing retinal inflammation and cranial nerve palsy.

Consequences

The most dangerous consequences of chickenpox include:

Weakening of the immune system and, as a consequence, loss of its ability to resist more serious viruses;
Loss of ability to work due to problems with internal organs;
Lethal outcome is possible if the patient develops chickenpox pneumonia, encephalitis, high fever and hepatitis.

The described consequences can be avoided if you consult a doctor in a timely manner and follow all his recommendations.

It is not recommended to treat chickenpox on your own, as has already been mentioned several times above. Under unfavorable circumstances, chickenpox may become only the first milestone in a series of health problems.

What is chickenpox pneumonia?

This is a lung lesion that occurs in 16% of cases of chickenpox and in almost all cases if the disease occurs in a generalized form. The first symptoms may appear simultaneously with the rash:

dyspnea;
chest pain;
cough with sputum (often with blood);
bluishness of the skin.

Multiple focal nodules spread in the lungs, which on x-ray look like tuberculosis. Antibiotics do not help in this case. Against the background of chickenpox pneumonia, bronchitis often develops; in severe cases, pulmonary edema is possible.

Pneumonia that develops in the later stages of chickenpox is considered separately. It is caused by a secondary coccal infection and is a common pneumonia. The disease is treated according to the standard regimen - penicillin.

Neurological complications of chickenpox

The consequence of infection with a herpes virus in an adult can be secondary encephalitis. Inflammation develops from the fifth to tenth day of the rash, sometimes even after recovery. The pathological process can be localized in different places:

membranes of the brain (meningitis form);
cerebellum (atactic form);
spinal cord (myelitic form).