Beating chicken pox just gets easier
Print Edition
Chicken pox has been included in the city’s immunization program from this month, with children receiving of shots at 12 months and 4 years.
All neighborhood health centers offer the free injection for children born after August 1, 2014, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning said. Other residents can get the vaccine if they pay.
According to Dr Rui Tao, chief pediatrician at Shanghai East International Medical Center, chicken pox is an acute viral illness caused by the varicella-zoster virus. It is extremely contagious and is spread by infected droplets and is most communicable during the onset of early symptoms.
The incubation period is 14-16 days and communicability is probable from 10-21 days after exposure.
When the final lesions have crusted, the patient can no longer transmit the disease. Isolation for six days after the first vesicles appear is usually sufficient to control cross-infection.
The prodrome occurs 24-36 hours before the first series of lesions appears.
The lesions begin as macular eruptions (slightly raised pink lesions) which quickly develop into itchy, tear drop vesicles which contain clear fluid. Then crusting develops within 6-8 hours.
Excessive crops of vesicles typify the illness. These are usually found in the upper body and extremities. When the mouth, conjunctiva and genital areas are involved, there is added pain and discomfort.
Complications are infrequent, but the most common are bacterial infections of the skin lesions. Far less commonly encountered are pneumonia and myocarditis. Encephalitis occurs in less than one in every 1,000 cases.
Rui said that mild cases require only symptomatic treatment such as wet compresses to suppress itching, which would otherwise cause scratching and facilitate infection.
In severe cases, antihistamines and antibiotics are required.
Given the commonly benign nature of the disease, anti-viral agents are not given to healthy children with uncomplicated chicken pox.
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