Virtually everyone has “passed” chicken pox symptoms, and you know you only have it once. But what is chicken pox exactly? And why is it only “passed” once in a lifetime?
Chicken pox is a disease everyone in popular culture is familiar with. However, it is not usually known what varicella is exactly, and why it is only once in a lifetime. Below we will clarify these two aspects.
What is chicken pox?
In this post we will focus on three fundamental aspects of chicken pox. The first will be the form of contagion and the process in which it affects a person. Second, we will explain the disease itself, and finally we will clarify what happens after having suffered the disease.
Chicken pox is acquired by inhaling suspended respiratory droplets expelled by someone infected with the varicella virus (Varicella Zoster Virus: VZV). We clarify that chicken pox is contagious two days before the rash appears. In addition, it is a highly contagious disease, which is why epidemics are frequent.
It has a latency process of two to three weeks, that is, this time elapses from the contagion to the development of the disease. In this time a series of events take place. First, the virus goes in the upper respiratory tract (throat, roughly). Then it reproduces in the regional lymph nodes.
Later, it reaches the blood, which transports the virus to various organs, where it reproduces again (especially in the liver and spleen). From here it returns to the blood, which finally brings it to the skin.
Chicken pox symptoms
Initially there are prodromes (nonspecific symptoms that augur the appearance of the disease). In this case, a flu-like picture occurs. After this, an exanthematous disease (that which occurs with a rash) occurs.
First macular exanthem appears (rash reddened but flat), which then becomes papular (raised, with solid content). Vesicles appear later, which are also high but whose content is liquid. Finally the crusts arise, which are the expression of the wound healing. Some of these injuries can leave scars.
Further info: Do You Have Small Bright Red Spots On Skin On Various Parts Of Your Body? Should You Worry?
After the illness
VZV belongs to the family of herpes viruses. Like the viruses of this family, after having caused the disease, it remains quartered, dormant (“asleep”) in sensitive ganglia. These ganglia correspond to groupings of neurons.
VZV reactivates in approximately 10-20% of cases. It leaves the sensitive ganglia of the back and produces the disease known as herpes zoster. It is similar to a common herpes but extremely painful and affects a region of the back.
Why chicken pox is only had once?
The answer to this question is that it depends on the immune response, its phases and characteristics.
Primary immune response
When an infectious agent comes into contact with the organism for the first time, the immune system causes production of two types of cells:
Lymphocytes: produce antibodies, which bind to the infectious agent and neutralize it or signal it so that other immune cells know they have to attack it.
Macrophages: they directly “eat” the infectious agent.
The primary immune response is slow and not very intense. Therefore, the disease develops but eventually it fights and disappears. During this response, memory lymphocytes are also generated, which resemble the infectious agent for a variable period of time. In the case of chicken pox, this period of time is (usually) the whole life.
Secondary immune response
In a second contact of the infectious agent with the organism, the memory lymphocytes act immediately. These generate a much faster, intense and permanent response. Thus, the disease ends up not developing.
So we could say that in lymphocytes of memory is the key to having chicken pox only once in a lifetime.
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