The pox you can live with (Chickenpox)

Member Name: Dando83

Product:	Chickenpox
Date:	28/06/06 (342 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Trumped smallpox

Disadvantages: Itchy as all hell, leaves nasty scars

SCIENCE-TYPE STUFF
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Uhm, looking for new "products" to review, I've come across "Chickenpox". I personally think Dooyoo should stick to consumer products but this is zany enough I thought I'd give you my experiences with the disease.

My knowledge of chicken pox from an immunology point of view is lacking. I do know that the body mounts a reaction to the varicella-zoster virus--another of our friends from the good ole herpes family).

There's always some confusion over the degree of contagiousness. It is highly contagious by air or contact two days before symptoms appear and until blisters have all scabbed. Immediately after exposure the virus has a two week incubation.

Symptoms appear like other herpes outbreaks on the body...blisters that eventually explode their gooey pus everywhere. Best to keep this pus to yourself eh?! As well as these blatantly obviously bursting sores (pocks) comes an occasional fever. The latter is quite common with most viral infections.

I'd recommend you consult a medical source for a complete listing of rarer (but more dangerous symptoms). My family never suffered any extra symptoms so it would be unfair of me to comment.

The upside to potentially horrible disfigurement? Your immune system will usually protect you from ever getting it again. I wish the cold worked like this.

Few people take advantage of the vaccine in Europe, but it's catching on around the world. Most (parents) choose instead to withstand the itchy sores with some calamine lotion. Parents sometimes expose children purposely hoping to get the worst of it over in childhood (pox parties) as adult infections can be worse. The worst time to be exposed is while pregnant. Infection of the fetus can be very dangerous.

DANDO'S EXPERIENCES
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Before my teenage years, I got a handful of spots on my belly and a couple on my face that left some nasty scars. Had I not scratched them, I'd have been alright. Two other of my siblings received the same very tolerable outbreaks.

My youngest brother however, is a very different story. The boy was covered from head to toe in sores. He cried and he sobbed. He had to take cold baths to relieve the itching...though, a cold bath is just as irritating as itchy skin. Poor guy. I can't imagine my own kids in that much discomfort.

Speaking of my own kids. They had an infected cousin who'd scarred up by the time we had our Father's Day get-together. Though the wife and I knew before-hand that cousin was no longer infectious, we were apprehensive. But true to the laws of nature, are kids remain pox free. As cases seem to pop up the local nursery and schools all the time, I don't know how much longer it'll be before one of them gets it.

MY VERDICT
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Get it over with. Have the calamine lotion handy.

Summary: I will never say "a pox on you" ever again.