Chickenpox Symptoms

Healthy children normally experience one to two days of fever, sore throat, and malaise approximately two weeks following exposure to VZV. Within 24 hours of these symptoms, a characteristic rash develops at first on the torso and then spreads over the next seven to 10 days outward to the head, arms, and legs. The rash progresses through a predictable development from a red papule ("bug bite") look to blister ("vesicle") to pustule and then scabs over. The vesicle and pustular fluids are extremely concentrated with infectious virus particles. New lesions normally come in "waves" over the skin surface. The patient may thus have recently formed papules, middle-aged vesicles and pustules, and crusted lesions all at the same time. At the highest point of the disease, a patient may have over 300 skin lesions at one time. Once all lesions are scabbed over, the human being is no longer contagious.