What does Chicken-Pox look like in Adults? How long will it last?
450592
Shingles is a painful blistering rash caused by reactivation of varicella, the chickenpox virus. It is correctly known as herpes zoster. \n\nChicken Pox is the primary infection with the virus, Herpes zoster, also called ‘varicella-zoster’. During this widespread infection, which usually occurs in childhood, virus is seeded to nerve cells in the spinal cord, usually of nerves that supply sensation to the skin. \n\nThe virus remains in a resting phase in these nerve cells for years before it is reactivated and grows down the nerves to the skin to produce shingles (zoster). This can occur in childhood but is much more common in adults, especially the elderly. \n\nThe first sign of shingles is usually pain, which may be severe, in the areas of one or more sensory nerves, often where they emerge from the spine. The pain may be just in one spot or it may spread out. The patient usually feels quite unwell with fever and headache. The lymph nodes draining the affected area are often enlarged and tender. \n\nWithin one to three days of the onset of pain, a blistering rash appears in the painful area of skin. Sometimes, especially in children, shingles is painless. \n\nIt starts as a crop of closely-grouped red bumps in a continuous band on the area of skin supplied by one, occasionally two, and rarely more neighbouring spinal nerves. New lesions continue to appear for several days, each blistering or becoming pustular then crusting over. Shingles occasionally causes blisters inside the mouth or ears, and can also affect the genital area. \n\nThe pain and general symptoms subside gradually as the eruption disappears. In uncomplicated cases recovery is complete in 2-3 weeks in children and young adults, and 3 to 4 weeks in older patients. \n\nOccasionally pain is not followed by the eruption - shingles "sine eruptione". \n\nThe chest (thoracic), neck (cervical), forehead (ophthalmic) and lumbar/sacral sensory nerve supply regions are most commonly affected at all ages but the frequency of ophthalmic shingles increases with age. Rarely the eruption may affect both sides of the body. \n\nIn elderly and undernourished patients the blisters are deeper. Healing may take many weeks and be followed by scarring. Muscle weakness arises in about one in twenty patients because the muscle nerves are affected as well as the sensory nerves. Facial nerve palsy is the most common result. There is a 50% chance of complete recovery and in time some improvement can be expected in nearly all cases.
813943
What you describe sounds like chickenpox.  If you never had this when you're a child, this is very likely.  If it is chickenpox please don't scratch, any you break open will leave nasty round scars!
764781
yes u need to keep away from young children and plder adults also those is immuno supression. it can take up 2 2 years to recover from it. i'm still recovering now and had it 9 months ago. it can go undeteced in your system for up2 6 months so my GP said. so if i were u i would tuck ur self up into bed and have a good rest.
467190
I'd say anything they would eat.  He or she is probably beyond miserable at this point so just let them have what they want.  You can put them back on their regular diet after they've gotten over the chicken pox.
982062
when i had them i was told that the spread by contact, using stuff that the patient has used and even getting too close to the sick person.\n\nHope you get better soon.\njust remember to NOT scratch or the pox will leave scars forever like they did to me. 2 on arms and 1 on foot.
733326
I have had it and it lasted about 4 weeks. However Pityriasis rosea usually goes away within 6 - 12 weeks. The itching was the worst for me the Doctor gave me a benovate 1n 4 solution to calm it down I had it over christmas a few years back. If you have the rashes you should have no futher sysptoms than you already have. Apart from swollen glands and the rash I didnt have any other symptoms. My doctor had never seen it before outside of  medical texts and had to show his colleage. It is nothing serious and should pass with out getting any worse.  Also once the symptoms have gone you should have life long immunity. Apart from looking rather scary it is a mild skin ailment hope you recover quickly.\n\nCheck the links to find out more about it.
1000844
Usually about 6 months from the time of diagnosis, but it can vary anywhere from a few days to 12 months.  It depends on the person, how long they have had it, where it has spread from, where it might have originated, etc.
521607
Shingles are an adult form of Chicken Pox.  They are more severe and not easily treatable.  In some cases in the elderly it can be fatal.
268912
Skin eruptions may appear two to 12 days after the initial exposure to the virus. \n\nThe first sign of infection is fluid accumulation (edema) at the infection site, which is quickly followed by small, grouped blisters, the characteristic HSV lesions. \n\n\nThese form on an inflamed skin base, which is more visible in dry skin areas. \n\n\nThe blisters then dry out and heal rapidly without scarring. Blisters in moist areas heal more slowly. The lesions may sometimes itch, but itching decreases as lesions heal. \n\n\nWhen the crust falls off, the lesions are no longer contagious. (The virus may still be active in nearby tissue but such persistence is rare.) The primary skin infection with either HSV-1 or HSV-2 lasts up to two to three weeks, but skin pain can last one to six weeks in a primary HSV attack. \n\n\nLymph glands near the site may be swollen as well. \n\n\nPrimary herpes is often accompanied by fever rising to about 102°F, muscle aches, headache, and flu-like malaise. These general symptoms usually resolve within a week. \n\n\nOnce HSV gains entry to a site in the body, the virus spreads to nearby mucosal areas through nerve cells. This characteristic spreading can cause fairly large infected areas to erupt at some distance from the initial crop of sores. \n\nhttp://www.gotherpes.com/doc52symptoms.sht
1011085
Use Aveeno oatmeal bath powder and bath/shower oil for bathing.It helps with the itching;unfortunately there is nothing that prevents some scaring from happening.\n\nAdults can contract chicken pox.There is a vaccine availablefor those who have never contracted the disease.If a person has had chicken pox,they are more apt to be vulnerable to develop Shingles in later life,since the body harbors the chicken pox virus for life(these are both forms of the herpes virus).
395682
Have you ever had chicken pox?\n\nThe lump is possibly a swollen lymph node. The human body has several lymph nodes throughout the body, one location would be in the area directly underneath the arm.\n\n\nCheck the rest of your body.....not for other lumps, but for a small cluster of red bumps that look like blemishes. Check your back also. If you have both of these symptoms, it's possible that you have shingles. (Shingles is merely a recurrance of Chicken pox, which is very minor, and will most likely go away without complications.) If you 1. have had chicken pox in the past, 2. have a sore lump in your armpit, and 3. find a small cluster of blemishes (which may even look like small pimples, and may also flake slightly), than you may possibly have a minor case of shingles. \n\nAfter a person has chicken pox, the virus never actually goes completely away, it merely becomes dormant, and stays in the human body, usually located within the spinal column. When the virus re-activates, it culminates in the syptoms I mentioned above, and the cluster of bumps (which doesn't get to far from the spinal cord, which is why i said check your back) is actually a small outbreak of chicken pox. Again, just keep your eyes open, and if the symptoms get worse, have it checked out.
483020
I have never heard anyone around me having it twice. And according to wikipedia,\n\n"Chickenpox has a two-week incubation period and is highly contagious by air transmission two days before symptoms appear. Therefore, chickenpox spreads quickly through schools and other places of close contact. Once someone has been infected with the disease, they usually develop protective immunity for life. It is fairly rare to get the chickenpox multiple times, but it is possible for people with irregular immune systems. As the disease is more severe if contracted by an adult, parents have been known to ensure their children become infected before adulthood."
468566
It might take about a fortnight or a month.Some serious ones can take about 3 fortnights.My friend got a severe Chicken pox and it took 2 months for it to cure.
393561
About 100 people in the US were reported to die from chicken pox in 2002, either directly or from diseases subsequent to pox.  It can be a problem in susceptible populations, and a vaccine is available (but expensive, i just got it).  Generally if you get it as a kid you are fine for the rest of your life.  If you get it as an adult, it can be potentially life threatening, esp if you are immunocompromised or elderly.
1020324
Herpes zoster is caused by a varicella zoster, the same virus that causes chickenpox, and the reinfection in an adult is often known as shingles.  When you get chickenpox as a child, the virus often migrates to the root ganglion of certain nerve cells and remains dormant, sometimes throughout your life.  About 20% of all adults will get an outbreak of shingles later in life, usually with advancing age.  Some causes for the reoccurrance are immunosuppression (either as a result of age, stress, depression, or other disease) or chemotherapy.  It is usually not deadly if treated promptly and properly, and with the newer anti-viral medications available on the market, only lasts a little while.  It is exceedingly difficult to eliminate it for good, since it just goes dormant again rather than dying out completely.
372303
Chicken pox is far too old a disease to be able to answer that question but here's some stuff about the history of it:\n\nOne history of medicine book claims Giovanni Filippo (1510–1580) of Palermo gave the first description of varicella (chickenpox). Subsequently in the 1600s, an English physician named Richard Morton described what he thought was a mild form of smallpox as "chicken pox." Later, in 1767, a physician named William Heberden, also from England, was the first physician to clearly demonstrate that chickenpox was different from smallpox. However, it is believed the name chickenpox was commonly used in earlier centuries before doctors identified the disease.\n\nThere are many explanations offered for the origin of the name chickenpox:\n\nthe specks that appear looked as though the skin was picked by chickens, \n\nthe disease was named after chick peas, from a supposed similarity in size of the seed to the lesions \n\nSamuel Johnson suggested that the disease was "no very great danger," thus a "chicken" version of the pox \n\nthe term reflects a corruption of the Old English word, "giccin", which meant "itching
891991
I don't know if this helps.  It IS confusing to figure out how it might happen that you would be exposed 16 years ago and just now have an outbreak.  That doesn't seem possible.  However, it is possible to be infected 16 years ago and never have had a primary or recurrent outbreak.\n\nWhat Happens\n\nYou can become infected with genital herpes when the herpes simplex virus (HSV) enters the body through sexual or other direct contact with herpes sores. HSV infections cannot be cured. Once you are infected with HSV, the virus remains in your body for the rest of your life. Many people do not develop symptoms and thus are unaware that they have the virus.\n\nFirst-time (primary) outbreak\n\nThe incubation period—the time from exposure to genital herpes until the primary outbreak of infection—is 2 to 14 days. The entire body may be affected, causing you to feel as though you have the flu. Blisters appear around the genitals or anus or in the area where the virus entered the body. The blisters break within a few days and become painful, oozing sores. The sores usually heal within 3 weeks (without treatment) and do not leave scars. Sores that occur in women usually take longer to heal than sores that occur in men.\n\nRecurrent outbreak\n\nAfter the primary outbreak, the herpes simplex virus remains in the nerve cells below the skin in the area where the sores first appeared. The virus stays in the nerve cells but becomes dormant, causing no symptoms. In most people, the virus becomes active from time to time, traveling from the nerve cells to the skin and causing repeated blisters and sores (recurrent outbreaks). \n\nSores from recurrent outbreaks usually heal faster and are less painful than those from the primary outbreak. People report that certain factors such as stress, illness, new sex partners, or menstruation may trigger recurrent outbreaks.\n\nAbout half of the people who have recurrent outbreaks of genital herpes feel an outbreak coming a few hours to a couple of days before it happens. They may feel tingling, burning, itching, numbness, tenderness, or pain where the blisters are going to appear. This is called the prodrome.\n\nPeople who have symptoms average five outbreaks per year during the first few years. Most have fewer outbreaks after that. The pattern of recurrent outbreaks—how often genital herpes infections return and how long outbreaks last—varies greatly. Some people have many outbreaks each year while others have only a few or none at all.\n\nGenital herpes infections caused by HSV-1 recur less frequently than those caused by HSV-2.