Essay On Chicken Pox

Chickenpox is an illness caused by the Varicella zoster virus. Chickenpox is now less common owing to widespread vaccination, but it was once and almost universal childhood experience. First symptom of chickenpox in early childhood is usually an itchy rash that appear on the head and spread throughout your body. The rash becomes raised, and blister is form. Blister can be formed on mucous membrane such as inside the mouth, nose, throat, and vagina. The blisters crust over and will disappear 10-14 days. People who have had chickenpox are more prone to having shingles later in later. Shingles is when Varicella zoster virus has been reactivated. In uncommon cases, vaccination for chickenpox can also cause shingles to develop. Subsequently in the 1600s, an English physician named Richard Morton described what he thought a mild form of smallpox as "chicken pox." Later, in 1767, a physician named William Heberden, also from England, was the first physician to clearly demonstrate that chickenpox was different from smallpox. …show more content…
Half of all varicella zoster cases occur in children between the ages of 5 and 9. It has been estimated that, before the chickenpox vaccine was introduced in the U.S. in 1995, only 10 percent of Americans over the age of 15 had never had chickenpox. A vaccine to protect children against chickenpox was first licensed in 1995. Children who have never had chickenpox should routinely be administered two doses of varicella vaccine with the first dose at 12 to 15 months and the second dose at four to six years of age. A single dose of the vaccine reduces risk of chickenpox between 70-90%, and two doses reduce the risk even