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| ===History=== | | ===History=== |
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| * Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease that spreads from person to person by direct contact or through the air from an infected person's coughing or sneezing. It starts with [[conjunctival]] and [[catarrhal]] symptoms and then characteristic spots appearing in two or three waves, mainly on the body and head rather than the hands and becoming itchy raw pox (pocks), small open sores which heal mostly without scarring. Touching the fluid from a chickenpox [[blister]] can also spread the disease. A person with chickenpox is contagious from one to two days before the rash appears until all blisters have formed scabs. This may take 5-10 days.<ref name="DermNet NZ">{{cite web | author=New Zealand Dermatological Society | title=Chickenpox (varicella) | url=http://www.dermnetnz.org/viral/varicella.html | date=14 Jan 2006 | accessdate=2006-08-18}}</ref> | | * |
| * It takes from 10-21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.<ref name="CDCP-diseaseFAQs">{{cite web | work=Varicella Disease (Chickenpox) | title=General questions about the disease | url=http://www.cdc.gov/nip/diseases/varicella/faqs-gen-disease.htm | date=December 2 2001 | publisher=CDCP | accessdate=2006-08-18}}</ref>
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| * The chickenpox lesions (blisters) start as a two to four millimeter red [[papule]] which develops an irregular outline (a ''rose petal''). A thin-walled, clear vesicle (''dew drop'') develops on top of the area of redness. This "dew drop on a rose petal" lesion is very characteristic for chickenpox. After about eight to 12 hours the fluid in the vesicle gets cloudy and the vesicle breaks leaving a crust. The fluid is highly contagious, but once the lesion crusts over, it is not considered contagious. The crust usually falls off after seven days sometimes leaving a crater-like scar. Although one lesion goes through this complete cycle in about seven days, another hallmark of chickenpox is the fact that new lesions crop up every day for several days. Therefore it may be a week before new lesions stop appearing and existing lesions crust over. Children are not to be sent back to school until all lesions have crusted over.<ref>{{cite web | author=Heather Brannon | title=Chicken Pox - Varicella Virus Infection | url=http://dermatology.about.com/cs/chickenpox/a/chickenpox.htm | date=December 25, 2005 | accessdate=2006-08-18}}</ref>
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| * Chickenpox is highly contagious and is spread through the air when infected people cough or sneeze, or through physical contact with fluid from lesions on the skin. [[Herpes zoster|Zoster]], also known as shingles, is a reactivation of chickenpox and may also be a source of the virus for susceptible children and adults. It is not necessary to have physical contact with the infected person for the disease to spread. Those infected can spread chickenpox before they know they have the disease - even before any rash develops. People with chickenpox, in fact, can infect others from about two days before the rash develops until all the sores have crusted over, usually four or five days after the rash starts.
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| ===Symptoms=== | | ===Symptoms=== |