Case Report: Account of chickenpox progression over 10 days

Abstract

Chickenpox is an extremely contagious disease; caused by the varicella-zoster virus primary infection. A 27-year-old adult Black African male health care worker presented with severe headache, intermittent weakness and inability to walk, intermittent nausea, fever, nocturnal polydipsia, shortness of breath, itching, pruritus (intensely pruritic erythematous macules), lesions with pus on the skin, sleep disturbances, and nightmares for two days. The most commonly occurring symptom of chickenpox is a vesicular rash that appears on the scalp, back and front of the neck, face and scapulae, and then disseminates distally to the limbs. In this case report, the patient face, neck and scapulae were the most infected areas of the body and the rest of the body except the legs, hands, genital areas and buttocks, were also highly infected. Acyclovir 800 mg orally, five times a day was given for ten days to cure chickenpox infection because acyclovir inhibits the replication of the varicella zoster virus, and has the ability to eradicate varicella zoster virus and relieve the symptoms more readily.