In our childhood, many of us may have suffered from many diseases. On of the most common among them is ‘Chicken Pox’, that leaves you with an itchy skin and red spots all over the body. Your whole body gets covered with blister like spots and the disease is usually accompanied by symptoms of Flu. This illness is common among the kids under the age of 12.
Chicken pox is caused due to a virus named ‘Varicella Zoster Virus’ and the resulting infection is highly contagious. It usually starts with flu and cough and within 2 days, blisters start appearing on your body in bunches. Sarting from the chest and face, they then can spread to the other parts and cover the whole body. The worst of the disease is when it causes the blisters in the patients’ ears and even in the mouth. It takes almost 14 days, in most cases, for the patient to recover; the blisters keep appearing for the first 7 days and take almost 48 hours to crust over. After one cluster has crusted over, another one appears and this process continues for almost 14 days. After that the patient is no more infectious and is safe.
Well! One thing is confirmed, you won’t suffer for more than 14 days. You just have to stay careful for these 2 weeks and avoid contact with other people as chicken pox is an airborne disease and spreads easily through cough and through direct contact with the ill person; you should be careful about others as well.
Itching is one other bad part of the Chicken pox; it can drive you crazy enough to scratch your skin off your flesh. You can take the following steps to lessen your itching, if not get rid of it.
1. Stay in cool and dry areas and try to avoid sweat as sweating and heat will increase the itching.
2. When you scratch your skin, it not only worsens your itching but also damages your skin. Keep your finger nails trimmed so that even if you scratch, you don’t end up damaging your skin.
3. Use a good quality anti-itching lotion (calamine lotion) on the affected areas to soothe itching.
These were the major tips; the last and the most important thing to remember is, never ever scratch the blisters on your skin. This is because this not only tears your skin leaving scars, but also puts you at a risk of suffering from skin infection. If you see or feel any of the aforementioned symptoms, we recommend you should see a doctor as soon as possible.
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