Chicken-pox and pregnancy - By: Groshan Fabiola

Many of the pregnant women can be at a certain moment exposed to a person infected with chicken-pox. Although the thought of the bad consequences it might have on the child is frightening, the actual problems do not seem to be so serious at all. About 80-90 % of the pregnant ladies are protected from the virus due to an earlier infection or due to a subclinical unapparent form of the disease.

The condition known as chicken-pox is an infecto-contagious viral disease with a high ability to spread through droplets in the air or by direct contact. The most common signs and symptoms of chicken-pox are fever, general weakness and an itchy rash consisting out of red small vesicles filled with fluid that crust in a few days.

The average incubation period before the disease becomes clinically obvious varies from 10-14 days while the infected person can spread the virus to healthy subjects without knowing it. The ill person remains infectious and able to transmit the condition until all crusted vesicles disappear from the skin surface.

The most important complication in these cases is the potential harm the viral infection can do to the unborn child. If the pregnant woman recalls having had the disease earlier, the risk for the baby is practically zero. If she cannot remember having had the condition, it is still possible that she has the antibodies due to a silent and asymptomatic infection with the virus. In order to make sure of the potential damages the virus could cause to the unborn child, all mothers contacting the disease during pregnancy should see a doctor. They will undergo some blood tests and verify if the woman is or not immune to the viral infection.

The risk of possible complications during pregnancy for women infected with the varicella-zoster virus differs by the age of the concept as it is variable sensitive to illnesses according to the development stage. Before 20 weeks of pregnancy there is a very small risk of developing the chicken-pox syndrome; it is however very rare as the probability of developing the syndrome is 0.4 until 14 weeks and about 2% between 14 and 20 weeks. Women treated with the immune globulin anti varicella-zoster have a minimal risk of getting the viral infection.

Another potential risk is when the mother’s rash develops only a week before giving birth or a week or month after delivery as she cannot transmit the antibodies to the child yet and he is susceptible to an overwhelming infection.

After 20 weeks of pregnancy and the 9 month term the risk for the child is practically zero; still, the mother is more exposed during the time and might develop chicken-pox pneumonia with sometimes very severe complications.

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For more resources about chicken pox or even about adult chicken pox please review this page http://www.chicken-pox-center.com/adult-chicken-pox.htm

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