Some time ago, shingles and chickenpox were considered to be diseases with no relationship between. Time has passed and scientists discovered that both diseases are causes by the same virus, the varicella-zoster virus. This virus belongs to the herpes family which causes a certain skin eruption.
You might also know varicella-zoster virus as: varicella (this is the primary infection that leads to chickenpox) and herpes zoster (this is the reactivation of the virus that leads to shingles).
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Chickenpox is a contagious disease caused by varicella-zoster virus. It leads to a skin rash that is itchy and after a few days transforms into blisters.
Chickenpox virus is transmitted by air and reaches a healthy organism by mouth or by nose. If an infected person coughs or sneezes and the small particles of saliva reaches a healthy person the virus will get into the lungs and then into the blood stream.
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Symptoms of Chickenpox (varicella) may vary from patient to patient making us see people that have headaches, flue like symptoms or even fever, that in some cases can reach 105 F, and swollen glands are also included. The incubation period of the chickenpox may also vary from 10 to 20 days, again depending on the patient and its immune system.
This doesn’t last much. Shortly after the flue like symptoms have past the rash breaks out. By rash we understand the appearance of tiny red bumps, mostly on the face, chest or abdomen. Spreading relatively quickly, they start to get bigger in a mater of hours forming a blister on a red base. A funny comparison has been found for them: dewdrops on rose petals. At first the fluid in the blisters is clear only to become cloudy during the period of several days and eventually forming a scab and falling of after another four. The number of blister also varies; while some patients of chickenpox have only a few ones, other can have hundreds, on top of that being the fact that they each like crazy. Lasting seven to ten days, the disease causes the patient to have several crops of blisters.
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