Chickenpox or chicken pox is a highly contagious illness caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV).^[1] It usually starts with vesicular skin rash mainly on the body and head rather than at the periphery and become itchy, raw pockmarks, which mostly heal without scarring.

Chicken pox is spread easily through coughs or sneezes of ill individuals or through direct contact with secretions from the rash. Following primary infection there is usually lifelong protective immunity from further episodes of chickenpox.

Chickenpox is rarely fatal, although it is generally more severe in adult males than in adult females or children. Pregnant women and those with a suppressed immune system are at highest risk of serious complications. Chicken pox is now believed to be the cause of one third of stroke cases in children. The most common late complication of chicken pox is shingles, caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus decades after the initial episode of chickenpox.

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