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Communicable Disease Chicken Pox

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Communicable Disease Chickenpox

Grand Canyon University
Concepts in Community and Public Health
NRS-427V

May 01, 2016

Communicable Disease Chickenpox
Here is some background on varicella-zoster virus. Chickenpox and Shingles used to be considered two different diseases, but they are both caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) ("CDC chickenpox," 2016). Varicella is the primary infection that causes the chickenpox and the herpes zoster is the virus that lays dormant in the host until reactivation and causes shingles. About 70-90% of all chickenpox cases that are reported occur in children under the age of 10 years old ("CDC chickenpox," 2016). Before the vaccine was introduced in March of 1995, there were 4 million cases of the chickenpox reported every year and since the introduction of the vaccine this number has decreased by 90% ("CDC chickenpox," 2016).
If a person has the chickenpox and they cough or sneeze they can spread the disease. They release tiny droplets that will carry the virus. If they do this around someone that has never had the virus and didn’t get their immunizations as a child there is a possibility for that person to inhale the virus and contract the virus. When the virus is inhaled it enters the lungs and then will pass into the blood stream. It then is carried to the skin and causes the typical chickenpox rash. The chickenpox are very contagious. It can be spread by airborne, droplet, and direct contact with an infected person ("CDC chickenpox," 2016).
Symptoms from the chickenpox virus are stomach ache, headache, fever, or the infected person may lose their appetite before they breakout in the classic pox rash. The classic rash may first appear on the stomach then may move to the back and face then could spread to the entire body. It is a blister-like rash that may cause between 250 -500 itchy blisters. This

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