Chickenpox

For a lay person:

Chickenpox is a very contagious viral infection that causes an itchy rash of spots that turn into fluid-filled blisters and then crust over. It is most common in children, in whom it is usually mild, but it can be more serious in adults, pregnant women, newborns and people with weak immune systems. The same virus can later reactivate as shingles.

For a trained medical person:

Primary infection with varicella-zoster virus, spread by respiratory droplets and vesicle fluid, producing a generalised vesicular rash in crops after an incubation of about two weeks. Diagnosis is clinical, with PCR of vesicle fluid in atypical or high-risk cases. Management is supportive in healthy children (antipyretics avoiding NSAIDs and aspirin, antipruritics), with aciclovir for adults, high-risk or immunocompromised patients and post-exposure measures for pregnant or immunosuppressed contacts; vaccination is available in many countries.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook gives Chinese herbal formulas for this condition without a full pattern differentiation. Treatment still follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Chickenpox is vaccine-preventable in many countries; see a doctor if you are pregnant, have a newborn or weakened immunity and have been exposed, and seek urgent care for breathing difficulty, a severely unwell or drowsy child, or red, hot, painful skin around the spots. Do not give aspirin or ibuprofen to children with chickenpox, and do not give herbal remedies to children without medical advice.