CHICKENPOX

A highly infectious viral disease, chickenpox is known medically (and in many countries) as varicella. Chickenpox has nothing to do with chicken. The name was meant to distinguish this "weak" form of the pox from smallpox (chicken being used, as in chickenhearted, to mean weak or timid). The "pox" of chickenpox is no major matter unless infected (through scratching) or occur in an immunodeficient person. However, there can be very major problems with chickenpox including pneumonia and encephalitis, particularly in adults but also sometimes in children, and reactivation of the same herpes virus is reponsible for shingles (zoster). The current aim in the U.S. is to achieve universal (or nearly universal) immunization of children with the chickenpox vaccine.