chickenpox

Examples of chickenpox in the following topics:

• Shingles

  • Shingles, the common name for herpes zoster, is caused by latent varicella zoster virus, the same virus which causes chickenpox in children.
  • The initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV) causes the acute (short-lived) illness chickenpox which generally occurs in children and young people.
  • Years or decades after a chickenpox infection, the virus may break out of nerve cell bodies and travel down nerve axons to cause viral infection of the skin in the region of the nerve.
  • It has become common practice to vaccinate children against the virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles.
  • Vaccination after an individual has had chickenpox still reduces the risk of later developing shingles.

• Binomial distribution exercises

  • (d) What is the probability that at least 1 out of 10 randomly sampled American adults have had chickenpox?
  • We learned in Exercise 3.28 that about 90% of American adults had chickenpox before adulthood.
  • (a) How many people in this sample would you expect to have had chickenpox in their childhood?
  • (b) Would you be surprised if there were 105 people who have had chickenpox in their childhood?
  • (c) What is the probability that 105 or fewer people in this sample have had chickenpox in their childhood?

• Dermatomes

  • Viruses that remain dormant in nerve ganglia, such as the varicella zoster virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles, often cause either pain, rash, or both in a pattern defined by a dermatome.
  • Shingles typically appears years or decades after recovery from chickenpox.

• Animal Viruses

  • Latent infections are common with other herpes viruses as well, including the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox.
  • After having a chickenpox infection in childhood, the varicella-zoster virus can remain latent for many years and reactivate in adults to cause the painful condition known as "shingles" .
  • (a) Varicella-zoster, the virus that causes chickenpox, has an enveloped icosahedral capsid visible in this transmission electron micrograph.

• Airborne Transmission of Disease

  • Many types of infections that can be a result of airborne transmission include: Anthrax, Chickenpox, Influenza, Measles, Smallpox, and Tuberculosis.

• Viral Skin Diseases

  • The initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV) causes the acute (short-lived) illness chickenpox which generally occurs in children and young people.
  • Once an episode of chickenpox has resolved, the virus is not eliminated from the body but remains latent and can go on to cause shingles—an illness with very different symptoms—often many years after the initial infection.

• Double-Stranded DNA Viruses: Herpesviruses

  • Of particular interest include HSV-1 and HSV-2, which cause oral and/or genital herpes, HSV-3 which causes chickenpox and shingles, and HHV-5 which causes mononucleosis-like symptoms, and HHV-8 which causes a Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer of the lymphatic epithelium.
  • Various viruses from the Herpesviridae family seen using an electron micrograph Amongst these members is varicella-zoster (Chickenpox), and herpes simplex type 1 and 2 (HSV-1, HSV-2).

• The Vocabulary Epidemiology

  • For example, varicella zoster virus causes chickenpox in the acute phase; after recovery from chickenpox, the virus may remain dormant in nerve cells for many years, and later cause herpes zoster (shingles).

• Blister

  • The most common are chickenpox, herpes, impetigo, and a form of eczema called dyshidrosis.

• Viral Pneumonia

  • Because of this, the best prevention against viral pneumonia is vaccination against influenza, adenovirus, chickenpox, herpes zoster, measles, and rubella.