Chickenpox in Trinity County
There are currently 4 cases of chickenpox (varicella) reported in two schools in Trinity County: Trinity High School, and Douglas City Elementary School. Trinity County Public Health has effective procedures in place for controlling the spread of contagious viruses, and we as a community have successfully addressed similar issues in the past.
Chickenpox is a viral infection that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and is spread very easily from person to person. It causes a blister-like rash, itching, tiredness, and fever. The rash appears first on the stomach, back, and face and can spread over the entire body causing between 250 and 500 itchy blisters. Due to a vaccine preventing chickenpox, the illness has become increasingly less common in the United States. However, people young and old can still get chickenpox, and it can lead to serious complications, especially in babies, adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. That is why it is important to understand what causes chickenpox, who’s most at risk for getting it, and how to protect yourself and your family if you are exposed.
The most common risk factors for getting chickenpox include:
• Not being vaccinated – if you have not been vaccinated against chickenpox and come in contact with the virus, your chances of becoming ill are very high.
• Never having had chickenpox – if you have never had chickenpox, you are at high risk of getting sick if you are around others who have the illness.
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We have a case here in Humboldt too. My 5 year old son was diagnosed tonight, pending bloodwork confirmation.
Katie, would you be comfortable naming the closest town?
Kym, just FYI Katie’s child’s bloodwork came back, and it was NOT chicken pox. Thanks for all you do Kym!
Good to know! Thank you. I hope the kiddo is better soon.
Can I set up a play date with my son? I’ll keep himsafely quarantined after 😬
👍🧡
Southern Humboldt?
Wow. When I was a kid, it was normal for everyone to get it…
Yep! I had them when I was 8. Miserable.
it’s a right of passage… but an uncomfortable one… get your kid to Dr. B if gets wierd, fever over 103 etc..
Who is Dr. B?
I think it’s Bourbon
Buxbaum in fortuna
Thanks.
Oh my, how things have changed….
My son was diagnosed with chicken pox three times before he was five.
The first one was likely measles (it went around SoHum that summer and parents were exposing their kids to it the week I delivered a baby at home).
The second time it might have been chicken pox, my daughter brought it home from the public schools (with an endless population of head lice), but the third time it was a massive case of primary herpes picked up in daycare (how else do country kids get socialized?). Each time the doctor (old timers will remember his name) at RRHC assured me it was “just chicken pox” and would run the course in a week or three. That third time I demanded a test… I recognized herpes.
Now it’s a Major Medical Issue with alerts and induced panic.
Bah!
I was warned about using any OTC to reduce fevers with chicken pox (potential for brain damage?) had oatmeal baths recommended when I flatly rejected calamine and benedryl for itching.
Oatmeal baths, and wood ash mixed with a little water spread over the bumps. Bentonite clay works great too. Use the oatmeal bath to rinse the clay or ash off then reapply as needed. Put oatmeal in cheesecloth or muslin or even part of a nylon and tie it in knot, put it in bath and let it get milky then use it like a washcloth and get that oatmilk on the skin.
Drink lots of water. Rest deeply. Natural antibodies are the best!
I remember all the parents getting really excited (to my young brain) and arrange many sleepover parties until we all got the chicken pox, no big deal, it was never presented as a bad thing to me. It was what your parents wanted so you wouldnt get it later in life when its actially dangerous.
Oatmeal baths, and wood ash mixed with a little water spread over the bumps. Bentonite clay works great too. Use the oatmeal bath to rinse the clay or ash off then reapply as needed. Put oatmeal in cheesecloth or muslin or even part of a nylon and tie it in knot, put it in bath and let it get milky then use it like a washcloth and get that oatmilk on the skin.
Drink lots of water. Rest deeply. Natural antibodies are the best!
I remember all the parents getting really excited (to my young brain) and arrange many sleepover parties until we all got the chicken pox, no big deal, it was never presented as a bad thing to me. It was what your parents wanted so you wouldnt get it later in life when its actially dangerous.
These remedies are great for poison oak too!
varicella-zoster virus is also where shingles is from later on.
So you always have that to look forward to.
There you go, anti-vaxers…
Entirely preventable diseases do not have to affect you or your family!
Get vaccinated, it’s easy, safe, and just the right thing to do.
Someone who has some good.sense. Thank you. Then Shingles will possibly come into your life later on in years. It can be very crippling. Good news there is a vaccine for that too.
For many kids it was an uncomfortable few weeks and some nice medieval pox scars. For a small percentage of kids it kills or maims, and the virus never leaves you once allowed a foothold. It hides away for life in your spinal fluid where your immune system can’t reach it, to erupt later as painful ‘shingles’.
Get immunized. I can still remember teachers and grandparents maimed by polio, and there’s many people I never met because they died of preventable disease. Immunizations have allowed us to forget what these diseases can do. I hope we are smart enough not to need a real-life demonstration before we appreciate them again.
When my grandson was eight he caught them from his cousin then gave them to my son who was twenty-three then he gave them to me when I was fifty. I thought no big deal because I didn’t feel sick and being on sick leave from work I figured what better way than to go into the country and walk around and enjoy my days off. Big, big mistake. I didn’t know to not go out in the sun because then they will drop on you, whatever that means. All I know was they knocked me off my feet. I was in a really bad fix. Since then I always get a shingle shot.
“Most children who get chickenpox recover completely. But chickenpox can be serious, even deadly, especially for babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system.”