Prevention of chickenpox

If not vaccinated, 80% of people will get chickenpox before the age of 20. Pregnant women with the first trimester of pregnancy may miscarry birth defects.

Instructions on how to prevent chickenpox

Chickenpox is also known as chickenpox . The disease is caused by varicella - zoster herpes virus. This is a very contagious disease. Respiratory diseases, viruses that cause disease in respiratory secretions, in fluid of blisters (nodules). A healthy person breathes in this secretion when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

In rare cases, the disease can be spread by contact with vesicles and living tools that contain the virus. The virus can be passed from mother to newborn while still in the fetus or at birth and causes illness in babies.

Chickenpox is often sudden with symptoms of vesicles in the face, head and trunk areas.(Photo: Le Phuong.)

Chickenpox is common in children. Adults who have not had the disease when exposed to the sick person are also more infectious and sick than children, possibly a source of infection for children in the home. The disease usually occurs throughout the year, but occurs much from January to June. About 70% of cases occur during the year during these months.

Chickenpox occurs 10-14 days after exposure to the sick person. The onset of the disease is usually sudden with symptoms of vesicles in the face, head and trunk areas . Blisters that appear very quickly within 12-24 hours can float on the whole body. Blisters of size 1-3 mm in diameter, contain clear fluid. The case of severe blisters will be larger or when infected with vesicular bacteria will be cloudy due to pus.

Children with chickenpox often have high fever.Artwork: internet

Besides small blisters often with mild fever, anorexia but in adults or older children often with high fever, headache, muscle pain, vomiting. The disease lasts for 7-10 days if there is no complication, the stubble will dry out, flake, darken the skin where the pimples are but leave no scars. In case of infection with vesicles, scars can be left behind.

A mild complication of the disease is a skin infection where blisters, heavier than germs, can enter from the blisters into the blood causing sepsis. Severe complications such as pneumonia, encephalitis, and cerebellitis . can be life-threatening or leave sequelae later.

Pregnant women with chickenpox will be very dangerous because they are more likely to develop serious complications , especially pneumonia. When pregnant women get chickenpox in the first 3 months of pregnancy, the virus will spread through the fetus, which will cause miscarriage, or when the child will be born with chickenpox with many malformations such as small head, flexing legs, cerebral palsy, congenital scarring . In the days of birth or after birth, children who are infected will develop very severe with floating vesicles and are prone to pneumonia complications.

Artwork: internet

Chickenpox if mild can be treated at home without hospitalization. Children only need to be hospitalized when there are complications. Currently, the disease has a specific antiviral treatment for the disease, Acyclorvir, but it should be treated early in the first 2-3 days and high cost. Besides treating antiviral drugs, it is the treatment of antipyretic and body hygiene to avoid infection complications, no need to abstain from abstinence. It is important to monitor and detect complications promptly and avoid drugs that can cause more serious illnesses such as corticosteroids.

In order to prevent disease, it is not effective to just isolate without contacting the sick person. Because when the rash is not present, the patient is able to infect the healthy people and the possibility of this infection lasts for several days after the blisters have healed completely.

Effective prevention of chickenpox is now vaccinated. Children can start vaccination from 18 months of age or any age after that when conditions permit. One common misconception about parents is to think about vaccination only when there are many sick children around (from January to June). However, injections at this time are less likely to be prevented because they may have been exposed to the virus. The best time to get vaccinated is when your baby starts going to kindergarten or at 12 to 18 years old.

Misconceptions

1. Avoid bathing, fasting : This way your baby will be susceptible to infection because the skin is not clean. Fasting will cause children to become malnourished and reduce resistance to disease.
2. Abstain from the wind and cover up to remove all of the organs . This is wrong because the less children get, the better resistance and less complications.
3. Bathing or drinking water from stubble: There is no cure, can cause additional infections or poisoning of agricultural chemicals in stubble.