Adults, as is known, suffer from chicken pox much heavier than children. Infection with this kind of virus is fraught with a number of irreversible and rather dangerous complications. Therefore, many people, especially in the period of epidemics (autumn-winter), are very interested in how many days chickenpox is contagious. Knowing the exact timing of the contagiousness of this viral pathology will help to avoid the disease, to prevent possible negative consequences.
How many days before the rash chickenpox is contagious in adults?
To answer the question posed, it is necessary to study in detail the mechanisms of spreading the described virus and the processes occurring after its entry into the body.
The incubation period, during which pathogenic cells actively divide and accumulate in tissues and lymph, is from 10 days to 3 weeks. The average value of this indicator for adults is considered to be 16 days. The specified term can be conditionally divided into 3 stages:
- adaptation - the introduction of cells of the virus into the body;
- progression - multiplication of the causative agent of varicella, its accumulation, the formation of a primary infectious focus and its peripheral distribution through lympho- and blood flow;
- completion - the spread of the virus throughout the body, the beginning of the production of antibodies to it, the emergence of the first noticeable clinical manifestations of the disease and rashes.
As can be seen from the above facts, the causative agent of the pathology under consideration displays and remains active throughout the final stage of the incubation period. Therefore, an adult infected with chickenpox remains contagious to surrounding people for 7-10 days before the first specific symptoms appear - rashes on the body, fever .
Due to the absence of any significant signs of the disease at the time indicated, it is difficult, even almost impossible, to control the spread of the infection.
How many days is chickenpox after the rash?
Do not think that the formation of skin on the skin that is typical for the described pathology of blisters indicates the safety of contact with the patient. The virus in the body continues to actively multiply and be released into the environment in high concentrations. Therefore, therapists often remind how many days the chickenpox is infected from the moment of rash, indicating a period of 8-10 days.
More precisely, this period is determined by visual observations. An infected adult is considered contagious until two things happen:
- the amount of rashes on the skin will cease to increase;
- All blisters will burst and be covered with a dense crust for healing.
It can be said that chicken pox is one of the most contagious diseases. It is dangerous for a record number of days, about 20 days.
All specified time the patient should be isolated from healthy people with an exception of any close contacts, especially with those who in the childhood did not collide or face with the originator of a smallpox .
After how many days is a sick chickenpox not contagious to others?
The above arguments indicate that the total duration of cholera smallpox contagiosity is about 20 days.
Accordingly, the infected person can stop limiting in movements and contacts after the given term. Given that the exact time of infection with chickenpox can not be clarified, it is better to be guided by the presence of specific symptoms of the disease, their severity, the rate of disappearance of the rash and, of course, the healing of damaged skin.