It is a highly contagious disease. Although chickenpox related complications are relatively rare among healthy children, varicella disease could be more dangerous in infants and older age groups. In most cases, chicken pox in childhood is not a life threatening condition. However, it can cause considerable suffering and discomfort to the patient and inconvenience to the parent. Children who suffer can miss valuable time at school, especially during exams, and parents can loose working time, spent in looking after their sick children.
Medical costs are also involved.
Moreover, if an adolescent or adult becomes infected, the problems pertaining to lost working time and medical costs could be even greater. It is a viral disease caused by first exposure to the varicella-zoster virus. It presents as a fever and itchy-blistered rash and is highly contagious. Chickenpox infection is known mostly to affect children with a rash that is less painful and more diffused. Herpes zoster is the reactivation of the VZV, affecting older people, as the efficiency of the immune system declines with age, and tends to be more painful and sometimes serious, particularly if it occurs on the face.