Chickenpox
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chickenpox (or chicken pox) is a disease. Usually it is children who get the disease, but adults can also get it (though its usually shingles they get). People who have it get blisters, mostly on the body and in the face. Those blisters are filled with a liquid. At some point they will drain up, and there will be an urge to scratch. Burst blisters usually heal without leaving scars, unless people scratch them open (which leads to an infection). The symptoms come in 2 or 3 waves, and are usually accompanied by fever.
The disease can be very dangerous in pregnant women.
Chickenpox is caused by a virus of the herpes family. The same virus can also cause shingles and rubella.
There is a vaccine against it. Usually it is given to children, if they did not have the disease before the onset of puberty, that is aged 9-13 years old.
[edit] See also
- Cowpox
- Monkeypox
- Smallpox
- List of diseases
