• Symptoms
• Who is at serious risk?
• Management of Chickenpox
• Prevention

Chickenpox is…

• A common childhood illness that most children catch.¹
• Medically known as varicella.¹
• Caused by the varicella zoster virus.
• Quickly spreads through coughs and sneezes of someone who is infected.²
• Most common in children from 2-8 years.¹
• Highly infectious.³

• Rash of red spots, that become intensely itchy after 12-14 hours and turns into a fluid filled blister that crusts over and falls off naturally, 1 – 2 weeks later.²
• The spots are most likely to appear on the face, ears, scalp, arms, under arms, legs, chest, and stomach. ²
• Most children recover with no lasting effects ²
• Please consult a doctor if the skin surrounding the blisters become red and painful or if your child starts to get pain in the chest or have difficulty breathing. ²

Pregnant women:

• Can cause miscarriage, congenital varicella syndrome/ neonatal varicella.
• If a pregnant woman contracts chickenpox 7 days before or after giving birth, it can lead to serious type of chicken pox in the newborn baby and can be fatal.²

Others at risk:

• People with a weak immune system.²
• Adults with no previous exposure to the virus.²
• Newborn babies.²

• Although chickenpox is not serious for children, in most cases, it can be uncomfortable and disruptive to both you and your child’s daily routine.²
• Chickenpox is very contagious and therefore public settings should be avoided. The child should stay at home until the blister has burst and crusted over.¹ Avoid scratching the blister and keep fingernails trimmed short to prevent
  skin infections. Incubation period for varicella from the time of contact to rash is generally 14 -16 days with a range of 10 – 21 days.¹
• Because chickenpox is a virus, it cannot be treated with antibiotics. Treatment is about controlling the itching from the rash and other symptoms related to the viral illness.³ 

Speak to your HCP about the creams and medications that are available.

• Chickenpox is a vaccine preventable disease.¹ The vaccine is usually given to children as part of their normal routine vaccination.³
• Varicella vaccines are highly immunogenic, efficacious and safe in preventing varicella disease.¹
• Vaccination demonstrates a significant and sustained decrease in the burden of varicella.¹
• If a vaccinated person does get chickenpox, the symptoms are usually milder with fewer or no blisters (they may have just red spots) and mild or no fever.⁴