Chickenpox is caused by a virus that triggers rashes all over your body with tiny blisters filled with fluid. This disease is actually extremely contagious and can easily infect people who have not been victims of this illness earlier or people who have not taken a preventive vaccination for the disease.

Main indicators of chickenpox
The infection normally crops up only after 10 to 21 days of getting exposed to the chickenpox virus. The normal indications that crop up a couple of days before the rashes appear include

• Appetite loss
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Headaches

Once the rashes come out, it passes through a level of three phases that include

• Red or pink bumps that keep breaking out every day
• Tiny blisters filled with fluid that appear over the raised red or pink bumps around one day prior to its leakage and breakage.
• Scabs and crusts that appear over the blisters that are broken which take quite a lot of time to heal.

Risks and complications involved
Although chickenpox is normally quite a harmless illness, there are some cases where it can turn out to be dangerous. These conditions include

• Pneumonia
• Dehydration
• Brain inflammation
• Rye’s syndrome may develop for patients who were using aspirin when they had chickenpox.

Preventive measures
Thankfully, the varicella vaccine is available in order to prevent oneself from getting infected with chickenpox. This vaccine has been proven to provide total protection against contracting this disease for more than 98 percent of the people who have been administered proper doses of the vaccine. If you have already had chickenpox once, then the vaccine is not required as this virus makes a person immune to chickenpox for a lifetime. This vaccine can be administered to

• Young kids
  Children residing in the country are normally administered two doses of this vaccine as per the immunization schedule.
• Unvaccinated older children
  Children between the age of 7 and 12 should be administered two doses of this vaccine at an interval of three months if they were not vaccinated when they were babies.
• Unvaccinated adults who have never had chickenpox
  This list includes adults who are working in the healthcare field, travelers who are planning to go abroad, women who have reached child-bearing age, teachers, and people who take care of kids. The normal dosage is two doses within a time frame of one to two months.

How effective and safe is the vaccine?
There is quite a bit of apprehension especially among parents about the effectiveness and safety of the chickenpox vaccine. Studies reveal that this vaccine is effective as well as safe in every sense of the word. The normal adverse effects of this vaccine include slight soreness, reddish marks or slight swelling on the skin where the shot has been administered.