Me, Having Chicken Pox.. Shit!!!!!

Yeah, that's right, I'm having the horrible Chicken Pox. The Doctor gave me a week break for the healing process to take place and also to prevent my chicken pox from spreading to the other students. But I still need to be review just incase the chicken pox is completely heal or not. Here's a info about the diease.

What is Chicken Pox?
Chickenpox is a highly contagious illness caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). It generally begins with a vesicular skin rash appearing in two or three waves, mainly on the body and head rather than the hands and becoming itchy raw pockmarks, small open sores which heal mostly without scarring.

Chickenpox has a 10-21 day incubation period and is spread easily through aerosolized droplets from the nasopharynx of ill individuals or through direct contact with secretions from the rash. Following primary infection there is usually lifelong protective immunity from further episodes of chickenpox.

Chickenpox is rarely fatal, although it is generally more severe in adults than in children. Pregnant women and those with a suppressed immune system are at highest risk of serious complications. The most common late complication of chicken pox is shingles, caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus decades after the initial episode of chickenpox.

Signs & Symptoms:
Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease that spreads from person to person by direct contact or by air from an infected person's coughing or sneezing. Touching the fluid from a chickenpox blister can also spread the disease. A person with chickenpox is contagious from one to five days before the rash appears. The contagious period continues until all blisters have formed scabs, which may take 5 to 10 days. It takes from 10 to 21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.

The chicken pox 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 of chickenpox. After about 8 to 12 hours the fluid in the vesicle becomes 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 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 should not be sent back to school until all lesions have crusted over.

It is not necessary to have physical contact with the infected person for the disease to spread. Infected persons can spread chickenpox before they know they have the disease, i.e. before any rash develops. They 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.

Diagnosis:
The diagnosis of varicella is primarily clinical. In a non-immunized individual with typical prodromal symptoms associated with the appropriate appearing rash occurring in "crops", no further investigation would normally be undertaken.
If further investigation is undertaken, confirmation of the diagnosis can be sought through either examination of the fluid within the vesicles, or by testing blood for evidence of an acute immunologic response. Vesicle fluid can be examined with a Tsanck smear, or better with examination for direct fluorescent antibody. The fluid can also be "cultured", whereby attempts are made to grow the virus from a fluid sample. Blood tests can be used to identify a response to acute infection (IgM) or previous infection and subsequent immunity (IgG).

Prenatal diagnosis of fetal varicella infection can be performed using ultrasound, though a delay of 5 weeks following primary maternal infection is advised. A PCR (DNA) test of the mother's amniotic fluid can also be performed, though the risk of spontaneous abortion due to the amniocentesis procedure is higher than the risk of the baby developing foetal varicella syndrome.

Treatment:
There is no evidence to support the effectiveness of topical application of calamine lotion, a topical barrier preparation containing zinc oxide in spite of its wide usage and excellent safety profile.[11] It is important to maintain good hygiene and daily cleaning of skin with warm water to avoid secondary bacterial infection. To relieve the symptoms of chicken pox, people commonly use anti-itching creams and lotions. These lotions are not to be used on the face or close to the eyes. An oatmeal bath also might help ease discomfort.

Since I'm an adult, Infection in otherwise healthy adults tends to be more severe and active; treatment with antiviral drugs (e.g. aciclovir) is generally advised, as long as it is started within 24-48 hours from rash onset. Patients of any age with depressed immune systems or extensive eczema are at risk of more severe disease and should also be treated with antiviral medication. In the U.S., 55 percent of chickenpox deaths are in the over-20 age group, even though they are a tiny fraction of the cases.

With Love: Amirul010