E-mails were sent out Thursday morning to select students on campus warning of a confirmed case of chickenpox in their classes.
Mike Eyster, director of the University Health Center, sent out the e-mail advising students to contact the health center if physical symptoms of a rash and/or fever appear in the next couple of weeks.
To prevent further spread of chickenpox or any other cold illnesses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises students to cover their cough and sneezes and avoid direct skin-to-skin contact with open wounds.
The CDC also recommends that children, adolescents and adults should receive two doses of vaccine to prevent the disease.
Jayne Carey, a registered nurse at the health center, said that an individual with chickenpox experiences typical cold symptoms after the initial contact with the disease. Then, after having a high fever, the body will begin to break out in small red vesicles — fluid filled spots — starting on the trunk or head of the body.
“The rash is very itchy,” Carey said. “Someone will have the tendency to scratch them and then they bleed, but it isn’t usually a life-threatening illness unless they have a compromised immune system.”
Carey said that immune deficiency includes those with HIV, cancer and even women who are pregnant.
Once a person is exposed, it can take three to 10 weeks before the body breaks out with the rash, Carey said, and the initial vaccine may not be enough.
“Just like everything else in medicine, we changed our minds,” Carey said. “If you only received the first vaccine, you should also receive the second dose.”
The chickenpox, or Varicella, vaccine is available at the health center during appointments with a nurse. The CDC says that about eight to nine of every 10 people who receive the two doses of the vaccination are completely protected from chickenpox.
Compared with cases students may have had in previous years, Carey said that having the disease as an adult is not that different.
“I wouldn’t say that having the disease now is a lot worse than when someone was younger,” Carey said. “I think people see it more of an inconvenience.”
—[email protected]
Chickenpox case on campus; health center advises caution
Daily Emerald
October 28, 2009
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