Chicken Pox is a viral disease. It provokes getting into the body of an infection called Herpes zoster - the same, it can cause the appearance of shingles. Because of the rather long incubation period of chickenpox, some infected people forget about it. The fact that this is a so-called childhood illness, which supposedly hurts immunity can hardly affect the adults, also makes us lose our vigilance. But in fact, representatives of different age categories need to beware of smallpox.
How to understand that the incubation period of chickenpox began?
The virus that causes the disease is not adapted to survival in difficult environmental conditions. Usually he dies within a few minutes. Especially dangerous for him are low temperatures, UVI, disinfectants. To survive, the microorganism has to quickly search for the "victim". It is transmitted by airborne droplets. And even a few seconds of contact with the infected will be enough to pick up the infection.
To survive the incubation period of the chickenpox virus in adults and the truth is much less frequent. But if the infection still penetrated the body and began to develop, you can learn about it by such symptoms as:
- a rash that can not be strongly itched;
- heat;
- chills;
- headache;
- deterioration of appetite;
- enlargement of lymph nodes .
Already on the second day after the appearance of pimples turn into small bubbles with a clear liquid inside. It takes a couple of days, and the contents of the "droplet" becomes cloudy, and afterwards it dries up and turns into a crust. It is the latter, falling off, with improper care left scars and deep scars.
How long does the incubation period of chickenpox last?
To know how long a virus can live in the body before it "votes" is very important. This will help to avoid many problems and will protect the family and friends of the sick person.
As a rule, the incubation period of chickenpox in adults lasts from 10 to 21 days. Sometimes the deadlines can be delayed. It depends mainly on how strong the immune system is.
The average incubation period for chicken pox is 16 days. During this time, the causative agent has time to enter the body through the respiratory tract, begin to multiply there and accumulate in hazardous quantities.
Experts are accustomed to divide the entire time of the development of the disease for several periods:
- At the initial stages the virus only adapts to the new conditions of life. The countdown of this period begins immediately after contact with the patient. If you remember when exactly this happened, you can calculate the exact start date of the incubation period - just add two days - as much as the pathogen needs to adapt.
- The second stage of development of the incubation period of chickenpox is several days when the microorganism reproduces itself particularly actively. At the same time, the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract is affected.
- The final stage is characterized by the spread of the virus throughout the body and the production of antibodies to it. Finally, his patient begins to notice the first symptoms of the disease.
By such an algorithm, the disease does not always develop. In some cases, the individual stages fall out.
At what stage of the chickenpox incubation period does a person become infectious?
Most infectious disease doctors say that the person who is infected begins to pose a danger to others the day before the first symptoms appear. Avoid contact with healthy people the patient should be until until his body completely stops appearing new rashes, and the papules themselves will not be covered with a crust.