This week, the presence of a new outbreak of chickenpox was known in the commune of Tirúa, province of Arauco. This highly contagious disease, common in children between one and nine years old, occurs mainly in kindergartens and schools at the end of winter and beginning of spring.
The assistant professor of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Concepción, Dr. Alvaro Llancaqueo Valeri, details that “they are viral symptoms that usually begin with fever and have typical spots. In the case of chickenpox, what it causes is blisters, which is called crystal plague. It is common in children, what happens is that now there are vaccines so we see it less than before but it appears in practically all children to a greater or lesser degree.”
For his part, the microbiology specialist from the Faculty of Biological Sciences UdeC, Dr. Francisco Fuentes Villalobosexplained that the outbreak could have originated due to the lack of vaccination in certain age groups, especially those born before 2020, when the chickenpox vaccine was not part of Chile’s National Immunization Program.
“The vaccination rate has a lot of influence, since infections with this virus are usually transmitted easily during childhood, in confined spaces such as classrooms. Fortunately, today this vaccine exists within our national immunization program, but only for a few years. This is delivered through a two-dose scheme from the second year of life and after turning four years old,” he says.
This infection, from the group of exanthematous diseases, has as its main characteristic the presence of a skin rash that occurs more frequently during pediatric age. It always presents symptoms but sometimes it can be milder in vaccinated children; however, it could worsen in immunocompromised people or people with underlying diseases.
“They are usually bacterial superinfections, in some patients who are immunocompromised, patients, for example, oncology, undergoing chemotherapy, with therapy for some diseases with corticosteroids or biological products, etc. They are more susceptible to the disease, it can be more serious, although there are few cases in which the disease is serious from the beginning, most of the time it is a benign behavior and rarely requires hospitalization,” explained Dr. Alvaro. Llancaqueo
Outbreak control
Although so far the disease has only occurred in the city of the Biobío region, specialists emphasize the importance of taking actions that can prevent a larger outbreak in other parts of the population.
“Unvaccinated people who are in contact with people with a case of the chickenpox virus, commonly known as crystal plague, should seek isolation, as far as possible, wash their clothes independently and handle with gloves, in addition to ventilating very well. environments,” said the principal investigator of the Immunovirology Laboratory, Dr. Francisco Fuentes.
To this, Dr. Llancaqueo adds that we must add “all the measures that imply social isolation, at least one meter or more, but in general one of the things that must be prioritized is vaccination for children who are susceptible, who have not had chickenpox before, because this disease usually does not recur. In reality, chickenpox, when it usually recurs, is much more advanced in adults, older adults, through a syndrome called varicella zoster in which the same vesicles appear but associated with a nervous tract, but there is a vaccine for chickenpox and that would be a very good measure at the population level.”
