Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease that is caused by a herpesvirus called varicella-zoster virus (7). Chickenpox is one of the most easily transmitted of contagious diseases (5). Ninety to ninety-five percent of the people exposed to the virus will develop it within twenty-one days (5). The term chickenpox came from chickpea, which is a member of the bean family and resembles the look of the swollen pox, or from the Old English gican, meaning “to itch” (7).
Before chickenpox was classified as a disease it was confused with other similar diseases such as smallpox, measles, German measles, and scarlet fever. They all had a typical rash, and they were known as acute exanthems or “a disease characterized by an eruption or rash, from the Latin and Greek word exanthema, meaning ‘to break out,’ or, originally, ‘to bloom.’” Many people were misdiagnosed due to the similarities between these diseases, and the fact that they can occur in milder or more sever forms leading to an overlap of the most obvious symptoms. (7)
Chickenpox mostly occurs in children classifying it as a childhood disease although it can occur in adults who are not yet immune to it. This could lead to the belief of chickenpox being one of the oldest diseases. Since the chickenpox infection has two phases, one most common during childhood then a latent form that can become active again later in the persons life, doctors believe that this reactivation would start the cycle all over again. If everyone in the first cycle got the germ then became immune a whole new generation would be born by the time the virus “reawakened” to become infectious in the new generation. This causes the suspicion of chickenpox being one of the oldest diseases. (7)
Chickenpox can infect everyone and anyone throughout the world (7). More than three million Americans mostly children between the ages of two and eight are affected every year (3). The virus is known for being mild, but if an adult or a child with a weak immune system catches it it could become serious (3). “It kills between fifty and a hundred people every year.” (3) Almost 10,000 people are hospitalized each year for complications with the disease (4). The complications range from serious, which can include secondary skin infections, to fatal such as Reye syndrome (4).
This common disease is highly contagious and easily transmitted through the air by s...
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...erson who has not got chickenpox can contract it from anyone who has shingles. Shingles is most common among people over fifty, although anyone can get it. (7)
Chickenpox is a relatively mild disease. It is very common among children, and is part of almost anyone’s childhood. Chickenpox is not considered a deadly disease, which is good, although some may die from it. Chickenpox is nothing to worry about in most cases and should be considered a holiday from school or work.
Works Cited
1. Carpi, John. “A Pox on the Pox.” Scientific American 273: 10 (1995):
32-32D.
2. “Don’t Play Chicken.” Prevention 49: 9 (1997): 137
3. Kemper, M.D., M.P.H. Kathi J. The Holistic Pediatrician. New York, New
York: HarperPerennial, 1996.
4. Kump, Derma. “Childhood without Chicken Pox?” Parents 71: 4 (1996):
39-40.
5. Markel, Howard, and Frank A. Oski. The Practical Pediatrician. New York,
New York: W.K. Freeman and Company, 1996.
6. Prevention Magazine Health Books, ed. Keeping Kids Healthy. Emmaus,
Pennsylvania: Rodale Press Inc., 1995
7. Silverstein, Alvin, Virginia Silverstein, and Laura Silverstein Nunn.
Chickenpox and Shingles. Springfield, New Jersey: Enslow
Publishers, Inc., 1998.
Chicken pox, or Varicella-Zoster, lies dormant in a person’s cerebral ganglia or in the ganglia of the posterior nerve roots after the person has an outbreak. Typically the virus will remain dormant for the rest of the person’s life, without a reoccurrence. Although there are instances when the virus will “awaken” or become active again,...
Imagine waking up one morning and having blisters all over your body and every one was the worst itch you’ve ever had. That’s what having chickenpox is like. Before there was a vaccine, chickenpox caused about 4 million people to get sick, more than 10,500 hospitalizations, and about 100 to 150 deaths each
Silverstein, A., Silverstein, V., & Nunn, L. (1998). Chickenpox and Shingles. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
In the 1630s, another small pox epidemic broke out in what is modern day Massachusetts. After this epidemic, small pox would spread rapidly all across the New World killing off almost 90% of the Native peoples. It is said that this disease killed so many so rapidly that no one had the strength to even bury the dead. The Natives had such weak immune systems that sometimes the small pox
Chickenpox is one of a highly contagious ailment. It is also known as Varicella as it was caused by varicella-zoster virus. The common victims of chickenpox are children and it is a condition which occurs one or other times in childhood. Sometimes adults may do get it.
In order to get shingles, an individual must first contract chicken pox. In my case, my parents deliberately exposed me to chicken pox when I was about four so I could just be done with it. The varicella zoster virus then lies dormant in nerve cells. Usually, reactivation of the virus is prevented by the body's immune system, especially T cells. However, when the immune system is compromised for some reason varicella zoster can recur as shingles...
Small Pox is a contagious and possibly fatal virus that has been thought to be around since 10,000 B.C. Smallpox has killed 1 in 3 people infected. Nearly one of ten of the population had been wiped out because of smallpox. The virus was caused by the Variola virus and can only be transmitted by people. Small pox is characterized as a skin rash with vesicles containing fluid that then enlarge to contain pus. Small pox infects a person through the mouth and nose, and then it grows in the mucous membranes. “The last case of Small Pox in the United States was in 1949” (Smallpox Disease Overview). The last case of smallpox in the world was in 1977 in Somalia. An infected person can infect up to 2 to 5 other people but in order for the people to be infected they have to already have the rash and fever.
The history of differentiating between diseases and vaccinating them is a practice that has been used for more millennia than you can count on two fingers. In 900 BC, a Persian physician named Rhazes was the first to publish a written account attempting to distinguish between measles and smallpox (successful or not is a whole other matter). It takes about 2500 years before any more development in the field of vaccination. In 1661, Chinese Emperor Kiang wrote a letter that stated that he fully supports inoculation, which is the introduction of a pathogen or antigen into a living organism to stimulate the production of antibodies. Then in 1676, English doctor Thomas Sydenham publishes ‘Medical observations on the history and cure of acute diseases’ which successfully distinguishes measles from smallpox while in great detail. The report also stated details about Scarlet Fever which was big at the time. In 1678, a Boston newspaper published America’s first medical work, Thomas Thatcher’ pamphlet: A Brief Rule to Guide the Common People of New England how to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pocks, or Measles. Once again, Thomas Sydenham discovers a medical breakthrough in 1684 by concluding that the common health practices, not available to the poor, were more harmful than good in mild smallpox cases. Sydenham’s discovery would be the last big medical innovatio...
The death rate from Measles, Chicken Pox and Pertussis was much higher prior to 1930,
It is not known why the inactive cells suddenly become active again although scientists and doctors have narrowed down the most common targets of shingles. Those primary targets are people over the age of sixty, those who are stricken with chicken pox before the age of one, and those whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight off any illnesses.
Chickenpox is spread only between humans. There is no evidence of other carriers. One can catch chickenpox from surfaces that are contaminated with the exudate, linens and objects. As well, inadvertent contact with a person infected by the disease is easily spread to others via their respiratory system – coughing, sneezing and even just talking. Since the disease is airborne, it is quite easily transmitted to another by simply inhabiting the same room for over 15 minutes (Chickenpox, 2017).
Vaccination is widely considered one of the most successful medical attainments of modern civilization and a cost-effective public health tool. It prevents citizens from acquiring serious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria. These diseases were common in children generations ago, but the mortality rate is decreasing now because of immunization. Moreover, smallpox was the critical disease until two centuries ago, where millions died from it every year. After the invention of vaccination for smallpox, it was wiped out. Vaccines are made from the same germ that causes diseases. For instance, the chickenpox vaccine is made from the chickenpox virus (“Vaccine”). However, the virus in the vaccine is killed, and it is introduced to the immune system through booster shots. The immune system responds to the vaccine same as the real disease by making antibodies. Hence, if a child is
In 1994, a stable in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia broke out with an unknown respiratory disease that resulted in thirteen horses and one horse trainer severely ill, resulting in death. [7, 8] This disease was isolated by scientists and later classified as the Hendra virus. The Hendra virus (HeV), previously unknown, is now classified under the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Henipavirus along with its sister viruses the Nipah Virus and Cedar virus.[7, 9] HeV has the capability of causing fatal diseases in several animal species including humans.[1] The primary host of the Hendra virus was identified as the flying fox species from the genus Pteropus[1,2,3] that resides and migrates through Northeastern Australia[8] or more specifically, the East coast of Australia to Melbourne and west across Northern Australia to Darwin[7].
Chicken pox is not an Entrée that is served at one’s family holiday dinner party. Chicken pox is an extremely contagious disease caused by the Varicella zoster virus. Chicken Pox is not a disease that is known to affect other animals or insects. Unlike other diseases, where human and other animal close interaction causes the exchange of virus and disease this disease did not come from a human-chicken interaction. The name chicken pox has been stuck for generations; there are many theories behind its name. Chicken pox could sneak up on its young victims in the form of an innocent touch, or by inhaling tiny particles from a cough, or sneeze which then enters the respiratory tract. Once the virus attaches itself to it gracious, and unwilling host cells it causes a crimson rash that could be located on different parts of the body. The rash is highly irritating which makes it almost impossible not scratch. In the United States each year about 5,000 to 9,000 people are hospitalized, and around 100 people die from the microbe Varicella zoster that causes chicken pox.
The symptoms were blisters of the skins with puss and bleeding with high fever. The government was very aware and thought they had a vaccine but the micro-organism morphed into another pathogen that was airborn and the previous vaccine was no