Chicken Pox and Shingles

Chicken Pox and Shingles

Chicken Pox (varicella) is a contagious disease, usually seen in children.It takes from 10 to 21 days after initial infection for the disease to develop.It is characterized by fever and a small blistering eruption. The same pox virus also produces herpes zoster or “shingles”, characterized by a one-sided segmental inflammation of one spinal or cranial nerve. Painful localized blisters erupt on the skin over the distribution of the small nerve. Although chicken pox is more highly contagious, shingles is more distressing. Severe pain often lasts for weeks to months, particularly in older individuals. Acute shingles as well as post-herpetic neuralgia may respond to fever therapy,given early in the course of the disease. Given in the form of steam bath or at home in a bathtub, specific fever treatments can thwart the infection early and prevent many complications.


A varicella vaccine was first developed by Michiaki Takahashi in 1974 derived from the Oka strain. 
It has been available in the US since 1995 to inoculate against the disease. Some countries require the varicella vaccination or an exemption before entering elementary school. Protection from one dose is not lifelong and a second dose is necessary five years after the initial immunization, which is currently part of the routine immunization schedule in the US.The chickenpox vaccine is not part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule in the UK. In the UK, the vaccine is currently only offered to people who are particularly vulnerable to chickenpox. A person who already took the vaccine is more likely to have only a few chickenpox.