What does chickenpox turn into later in life?

Once you have had chickenpox, you usually develop antibodies to the infection and become immune to catching it again. However, the virus that causes chickenpox, the varicella-zoster virus, remains inactive (dormant) in your body’s nerve tissues and can return later in life as an illness called shingles.

How do you prevent chicken pox from getting worse?

The best way to prevent chickenpox is to get the chickenpox vaccine. Everyone—including children, adolescents, and adults—should get two doses of chickenpox vaccine if they have never had chickenpox or were never vaccinated. Chickenpox vaccine is very safe and effective at preventing the disease.

Why chicken pox is more severe in adults?

The illness is often more severe in adults compared to children. Most people who have had chickenpox will be immune to the disease for the rest of their lives. However, the virus remains inactive in nerve tissue and may reactivate later in life causing shingles. Very rarely, a second case of chickenpox does happen.

Why is chicken pox severe in adults?

Silly Grown-Up. That means that if an adult who never contracted chickenpox starts breaking out in the little itchy blisters, they’re more likely to suffer side-effects such as pneumonia (an infection in the lungs), hepatitis (an infection in the liver), and encephalitis (an infection in the brain).

Is chickenpox life threatening for adults?

Chickenpox can also cause death. Deaths are very rare now due to the vaccine program. However, some deaths from chickenpox continue to occur in healthy, unvaccinated children and adults. In the past, many of the healthy adults who died from chickenpox contracted the disease from their unvaccinated children.

Is it bad that I never had chickenpox?

Certainly, adults who never had it can still catch it, explained John L. Brodhead Jr., associate professor of clinical medicine. And when it hits adults, it can be a more formidable foe. Among other complications, chickenpox can bring on interstitial pneumonia, Brodhead said.

What is chicken pox in adults called?

Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. After you’ve had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles.