Chickenpox

Chickenpox is a disease. Sometimes it is spelled chicken pox. Usually it is children who get the disease, but adults can also get it. People who have it get blisters or spots, mostly on the body and in the face. Those blisters are filled with a liquid. At some point the blisters will drain, and the person will want to scratch them. Burst blisters usually become healthy without leaving scars, unless they become infected. The symptoms come in two or three waves, and usually include fever. If there are no complications, the disease will last between three and five days, in children. Chickenpox is very common, by age 14, more than 90% of children will have had the disease.

  
Treatment for Chickenpox

Primary varicella infection in the healthy child is a rather benign disease that requires symptomatic therapy only. Oral acyclovir should be considered for healthy persons at increased risk of severe varicella infections.

Adults and immunocompromised persons with chickenpox have a more complicated course than that occurring in children, and therefore, the condition necessitates a more aggressive pharmacotherapeutic approach. Intravenous acyclovir therapy is recommended for patients who are immunosuppressed or immunocompromised.

Varicella-zoster immune globulin (VariZIG) is indicated for use in highly susceptible, VZV-exposed immunocompromised or immunosuppressed populations. A live attenuated varicella vaccine (Oka strain) was approved by the FDA in 1995 for prophylactic use in healthy children and adults