Chicken-pox

Chicken-pox is a very contagious disease of children. The disease occurs in epidemics, especially in children under the age

of ten years. Children of-the first four years of life are the most susceptible. There is an incubation period of 14—21 days, most frequently 17 days.

The first symptoms are the following: a slight fever and sometimes pains in the back and legs. Almost at the same time (within twenty four hours) a characteristic eruption appears on different parts of the body. It is found very frequently on the scalp (the hairy part of the head).

The eruption consists of red macules quickly progressing to papules and vesicles. Soon they become crusted. The brownish crusts dry up and fall off in two – three weeks. The child remains infectious until the scabs scale.

The number of vesicles is very variable. In a slight case there may only be eight or ten of the vesicles, but sometimes in severe cases their number may amount to six or seven hundred.

In the vast majority of cases there is no difficulty in making a diagnosis, but a doctor must learn how to differentiate it from other skin disorders especially from smallpox.

Chicken-pox is one of the mildest of acute infectious diseases of children. Children remain feverish for 2 – 3 days, while new vesicles still appear and after that feel well.The recovery is usually complete. Complications are rare. Encephalitis may occur in uncommonly severe cases..

In the majority of cases no other treatment beyond isolation is required. The child should be kept in bed during the eruptive stage and as long as there is any fever. The lesions should be treated with a disinfective solution.