Chicken pox blisters usually appear first on the trunk and face, then spread to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp and penis, and inside the mouth, nose, ears, and vagina. Some persons have only a few blisters, although others have several hundred. It is these blisters that give chicken pox its name. Rather, the red spots were once thought to look like chick peas on the skin. Chicken pox got its name from cicer , which is the Latin word for chick peas.
Some children have a fever, abdominal pain, or a vague sick feeling along with their skin blisters.
Younger children often have milder symptoms and fewer blisters than older children or adults. Generally, chicken pox is a mild illness, but it can be deadly in persons who have leukemia or other diseases that weaken the immune system. Usually a person has only one attack of chicken pox in his or her lifetime. But the virus that causes chicken pox can stay dormant in the body and can cause a different type of skin eruption, called shingles, later in life. The Nemours Foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to children's health and is the largest physician practice delivering subspecialty pediatric care in the United States.