2006-07-21 07:49:36 · 5 answers · asked by LiN 6 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Other - Diseases
CHICKEN POX
What is chickenpox?
Chickenpox is a highly communicable disease caused by the varicella virus, a member of the herpes virus family. In temperate climates, chickenpox occurs most frequently in winter and early spring.
Who gets chickenpox?
Chickenpox is common in the United States. Virtually everyone who is not vaccinated acquires chickenpox by adulthood. Cases are expected to decline as vaccine coverage levels increase.
How is chickenpox spread?
Chickenpox is transmitted to others by direct person to person contact, by droplet or airborne spread of discharges from an infected person's nose and throat or indirectly by contact with articles freshly soiled by discharges from the infected person's lesions. The scabs themselves are not considered infectious.
What are the symptoms of chickenpox?
Initial symptoms include sudden onset of slight fever and feeling tired and weak. These are soon followed by an itchy blister-like rash. The blisters eventually dry, crust over and form scabs. The blisters tend to be more common on covered than on exposed parts of the body. They may appear on the scalp, armpits, trunk and even on the eyelids and in the mouth. Mild or unapparent infections occasionally occur in children. The disease is usually more serious in adults than in children.
How soon do symptoms appear?
Symptoms commonly appear 14-16 days (range of 10-21 days) after exposure to someone with chickenpox or herpes zoster (shingles).
When and for how long is a person able to spread chickenpox?
A person is most able to transmit chickenpox from one to two days before the onset of rash until all lesions have crusted. People who are immunocompromised may be contagious for a longer period of time.
Does past infection with chickenpox make a person immune?
Chickenpox generally results in lifelong immunity. However, this infection may remain hidden and recur years later as shingles in a proportion of older adults and sometimes in children.
What are the complications associated with chickenpox?
Newborn children (less than one month old) whose mothers are not immune and patients with leukemia may suffer severe, prolonged or fatal chickenpox. Immunocompromised patients, including those on immunosuppressive drugs, may have an increased risk of developing a severe form of chickenpox or shingles. Reye's Syndrome has been a potentially serious complication associated with clinical chickenpox involving those children who have been treated with aspirin. Aspirin or aspirin-containing products should never be given to a child with chickenpox.
Is there a vaccine for chickenpox?
A vaccine to protect children against chickenpox was first licensed in March 1995. It has been recommended for persons over 12 months of age. To protect high-risk newborns and immunocompromised patients from exposure, a shot of varicella zoster immune globulin (VZIG) is effective in modifying or preventing disease if given within 96 hours after exposure to a case of chickenpox. Older children and adults who have previously had chickenpox do not need to be vaccinated. Contact your doctor or local health department for further information about the chickenpox vaccine.
What can a person or community do to prevent the spread of chickenpox?
The best method to prevent further spread of chickenpox is for people infected with the disease to remain home and avoid exposing others who are susceptible. If they develop symptoms, they should remain home until one week after the skin eruption began or until the lesions become dry and crusted. Pay particular attention to avoiding unnecessary exposure of nonimmune newborns and immunocompromised people to chickenpox.
Is there a treatment for chickenpox?
In 1992, acyclovir was approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of chickenpox in healthy children. However, because chickenpox tends to be mild in healthy children, most physicians do not feel that it is necessary to prescribe acyclovir.
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MEASLES
What is measles?
Measles is one of the most contagious viral diseases. It is caused by paramyxo virus and is the most unpleasant and the most dangerous of the children's diseases that result in a rash. This is due to the complications of the disease.
How is measles transmitted?
* Droplets transfer the infections. Although the sick person may be in isolation, the disease may still spread from room to room.
* Anybody who has not already had measles can be infected.
* Infants up to four months of age will not be infected if their mother has had measles herself because they will be protected by her antibodies.
* The incubation period - the time between infection and the outbreak of the condition - is usually one to two weeks.
* Patients are infectious from four days before the onset of the rash until five days after it appears.
What are the symptoms of measles?
After about 14 days the following symptoms start showing:
* a fever at about 39ºC.
* a cold.
* coughing, possibly with a barking cough.
* sore throat - the lymph nodes in the throat may swell.
* reddish eyes.
* sensitivity to light.
* greyish spots, the size of grains of sand may appear in the mucous membrane of the mouth just around the molar teeth. These are called Koplik's spots and can be seen before the rash appears.
* after three to four days the temperature may fall, although it can run high again when the rash appears.
* the rash usually begins around the ears and spreads to the body and the legs within a day or two.
* at first the spots are very small - a couple of millimetres - but they double in size quickly and begin to join together.
* the spots are a clear red colour.
* the temperature, which may run as high as 40ºC, may stay that high for a couple of days. Then it disappears together with the rash, which may leave some brown spots.
* after a week the child will be fit again.
Children who have had measles cannot return to school or childcare before they recover and the temperature is gone.
The doctor should give children under the age of one who are exposed to the disease an immunity injection within five days.
In the UK all children between the age of 12 and 15 months are offered the MMR vaccination, which will protect them from measles, mumps and rubella.
How are measles treated ?
The treatment is to stay in bed in a cool room without any bright lights. Medicines for coughing and reducing the temperature should only be given after consulting a GP.
Future prospects
The doctor should be consulted immediately if the condition of the child gets worse or the temperature stays high.
The doctor must make sure there are no further complications such as:
* pneumonia
* inflammation of the middle ear (otitis media)
* inflammation of the nervous system. Luckily, this seldom happens and is the exception rather than the rule.
Once a person has had measles, they can never catch it again as the disease gives lifelong immunity.
2006-07-22 01:40:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Measles is caused by a virus. The symptoms include fever, runny nose, cough, sore and reddened eyes, followed by the characteristic red-brown rash. The rash usually starts on the face and spreads down the body, lasting three or more days.
The incubation period - that's the time between exposure to someone with the disease and the onset of the symptoms - is about 10 days. The red rash shows up three days to a week after the first symptoms. People are contagious from just before symptoms appear until 4 to 5 days after the rash appears.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there is no real treatment except bed rest. Most children are very sick, running a high fever and feeling uncomfortable, but most recover with no ill effects, according to CDC. Measles can cause pneumonia, inflammation of the brain, or ear infections. (Read about "Pneumonia" "Encephalitis") The disease hits very young children and adults harder.
Measles is preventable by vaccination. CDC recommends that children receive the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine beginning at age 12 to 15 months and again at 4 to 6. They should be reassessed at 11 to 12 years of age and if they haven't had all the proper immunizations, they should get them. Children older than that should get catch-up immunizations, if they need them. CDC suggests adults who have never had measles and haven't been vaccinated get two doses of MMR after consulting with their doctor. Adults born before 1957 are assumed to be immune since they probably had the disease as a child and you only get measles once.
Chicken pox is caused by the varicella zoster virus. It's the same one that causes shingles in adults. (Read about "Shingles") Chicken pox usually begins with an itchy rash of small red bumps in the scalp that spreads to the back and the stomach before spreading to the face.
Chicken pox is contagious from a couple of days before the rash shows up and until all the blisters have scarred over. A vast majority of the population used to get chicken pox as a child. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there once was a time that 95 percent of people got chicken pox before they reached adulthood. However, that is changing with the advent of a vaccine for chicken pox.
In 1995, a vaccine was developed. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends the vaccine for healthy children at 12 to 18 months of age. According to AAP, all children should have received the vaccine by their thirteenth birthdays. CDC recommends two doses of the vaccine: the first between 12 and 18 months, the second between 4 and 6 years old.
Adults who have not had chicken pox should talk with their doctors. If you aren't sure if you were ever exposed, there are blood tests available to determine if you are immune or not. Chicken pox is especially dangerous in women who are pregnant.
2006-07-21 07:56:22 · answer #2 · answered by lily 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2015-10-17 23:10:19 · answer #3 · answered by Sacha 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chicken Pox is caused by virus Varicella Zoster - which also causes shingles.
There are 2 kinds of Measles - one caused by Rubella virus and the other caused by Rubeola virus. Rubella is the one associated with birth defects and Rubeola is the one we normally think of as measles.
2006-07-21 09:04:46 · answer #4 · answered by petlover 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try this link bro may help you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_pox
2006-07-23 14:24:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anry 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋