Some cases treated or suspected for monkeypox, which is advancing around the world, are also treated as possible cases of chickenpox. The two diseases have many similarities, mainly in the symptoms, which involve fever, body pain, headache and the characteristic sores on the skin.
Visually, it can be very difficult to tell the two health conditions apart, especially for laypeople, but there are ways to tell the difference between smallpox and chickenpox. One is looking at the appearance of bubbles, which have some subtle but noticeable differences.
Understand what smallpox is
Crédito: Berkay Ataseven – Shutterstock
Smallpox is a viral and contagious disease that is transmitted from person to person after close contact between an infected patient and a person who does not have the virus. Smallpox was eradicated in the 1980s thanks to a worldwide mass vaccination effort.
The virus that is currently spreading is monkeypox, which causes the disease that is conventionally called “monkey pox”. In addition to contact with infected people, it is possible that the disease is transmitted from animals, which are the repository of the virus, humans, which is rarer.
The disease is endemic in Central and West Africa, however, it has spread outside the African continent in recent weeks, which has greatly worried health authorities. However, the disease has a relatively low transmissibility, thus the mortality rate.
What about chickenpox?
Varicella, popularly known as chickenpox, in turn, is also a viral disease, but much more contagious than monkeypox. The condition is caused by the Varicella-Zoster virus and is very much one in children. The disease is seasonal and has a higher incidence during the winter.
Chickenpox is transmitted from person to person through coughing, sneezing and saliva droplets. The disease can also be transmitted indirectly, through contact with contaminated objects, for example.
the differentiate
Monkeypox and chickenpox have relatively similar symptoms, the infected person having fever, body pain, headache. However, the main difference is in the way the lesions present themselves.
In both diseases, the lesions appear as small spots, become bubbles and create a scab, which falls off some time later. However, in monkeypox all blisters are born at once and are very similar to each other. In chickenpox, the bubbles do not have a pattern and are born at different times of the infection, waves of bubbles in the initial, intermediate and final stages of the disease.
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However, despite the symptoms being noticeable, it is very important to go to a doctor for the proper evaluation. In addition to the diagnosis, a health professional is the one who can give the best drug treatment referral for both conditions.
Via: Diário do Nordeste
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