Ask Mike: Itchy and Scratchy
Hey Guys,
Kids have many rites of passage. Some of these rites, like turning into a blithering idiot around members of the opposite sex, are ongoing. Others, like coming down with the chicken pox, tend to strike only once. I always wondered why these annoying red spots don’t return for a second time, so I asked the Answers community for some help.
Chicken pox are caused by something called the varicella-zoster virus. Fortunately, the body develops an immunity to this virus that (in laymen’s terms) blocks it from returning. Well, it usually does. While the vast majority of folks won’t get chicken pox a second time, the virus can “lay dormant” within the body and resurface years later as shingles. Not fair, but those are the breaks.
These days, kids can receive a vaccine that prevents the varicella-zoster virus from striking. iVillage, a parenting web site, features a list of pros and cons on the vaccine for moms and dads to consider. And, of course, your child’s pediatrician can handle any questions you have.
So that answers the main question, but one big inquiry still remains — why do they call them “chicken pox” in the first place? It’s not like chickens are particularly itchy creatures. There are a lot of theories, but none of ‘em are conclusive. Got a theory of your own? Leave it below (and please include a link that backs it up).
Thanks for reading,
U BRING UP STRANGE THINGS!!(weirdo)
such a huge inquiry, uuhh it’s just like all the other stupid names there are for things and rituals we have. like we say bless you after someone sneezes now because back then they beleived evil spirits would get in if the person was’nt blessed. But they used to think it realley was related to chickens
why is it that yahoo staff are allowed to post rants and chatting ‘questions’ while the rest of the world gets suspended???
They’re called ‘chicken pox’ because it looks like you got pecked (whatever you want to call it) multiple times by a chicken.
Prior to microbiology, the disease was thought to have occurred by handling chickens. There may be a degree of truth in that belief. Aside from human originated viruses, virtually all our viruses are contracted by association with diseased animals in which the virus has mutated to live in the human body. A current concern with the avian flu.
If you have ever hand-plucked a chicken or seen a stressed bird pluck themselves bare, the inflamed points where the feathers were once attached to the skin kind of look like the pustules of the disease on humans. It has to be an analogy. At least that is my theory.
I understand that the name was based on its relation to small pox and cow pox, chicken being used as it is a much less severe illness compared to the other two.
One site says “Chicken pox has nothing to do with chickens, much to my disappointment. The thought of spotty hens wandering around was quite appealing. The origin of the name is debatable, with some suggesting that the small spots look like they’ve been caused by the beaks of chickens (I would like to point out that as a child I was pecked on a number of occasions by my chickens during attempts to pet them, and this really hurt and sometimes drew blood, but never made me look like I had chicken pox). Most people, however, reckon the name comes from the resemblance of the chickenpox spots to chick peas, with the blisters looking like they have been placed on the skin. So there you go.”
http://www.ratlab.co.uk/pox.htm
Years ago, people thought the lesions (the rash) looked like chick peas and the word cicer (latin for chick peas) was used. It has nothing to do with chickens actually.
http://parenting.ivillage.com/tp/tphealth/0,,3q8n,00.html
When I first saw this Entry I though it was about Itchy and Scratchy on the simpsons…..
I never could figure that out. It drove me nuts as a kids. “You have chicken pox.”
“What does that mean?”
Nobody really had a good answer. My best guess is that people from farms were spreading it around when it first started and people naturally concluded that it was spread by chickens.
chicken pox in history is know as a virus
varicella zoster virus, chicken pox real name.
Chicken Pox: symptoms, treatment, risks, complications, long-term …
best
shut it this has nuthing to do with herps!
You have herpes. Don’t spread it around, douchebag…
The term “Chicken Pox” (or Chicken Pocks) has been around for a long time. It appears to be the lay person’s name for the varicella used by people in England. I found the following book that uses the term and also has references to the term Chicken Pocks going back to the late 1600s. It also has alternative names for Chicken pox used in other countries.
————-
The Third Part contains the Illegitimate or
Spurious Small Pox, called also Varicella and Chicken Pox
p. 20-31
In order to arrive at a correct judgment on this
question, it is necessary to take an accurate survey
of those eruptive diseases, which resemble the
legitimate Small Pox.
It was long ago stated, that the Small Pox
were divided into the Legitimate and the Illegitimate
or Spurious. These, it is proper to add,
are more commonly understood by the term Varicella,
in our vernacular language Chicken Pox ; •
but the latter denomination had formerly no such
import ; Morton gave this name to what he
thought the mildest species of the legitimate
Small Pox, from which that eruption differed very
little in the suppurative stage, and was chiefly
distinguished by the rapidity and mildness of its
termination.
p. 178
He observed three varieties of the Spurious
Small Pox. They are, according to him, “gene
rally preceded by a slight fever, sometimes only
by a little faintness, and spontaneous lassitude.
Then prominent red pimples break out here and
there on the skin, sometimes the first day, and
sometimes not till the second, or third; occasion-
ally these pimples immediately harden, dry, and
fall off, and the common people in this country
generally call them the Stem Pocken, (i. e.) the
Stone Pocks i in other cases, the pimples seem
full of a thin lymph, especially at the point; these
also speedily dry and fall off; they are called Water
Pocken, i. e. the Water Pocks : in the third
variety, there appear vesicles distended, but containing
no lymph, which in like manner soon fall
off; they are called Wind Pocken, i. e. Wind
Pocks.”
p. 190-181
Sanders, James. A comprehensive view of the small pox, cow pox, and chicken pox , 1813. Posted at Harvard University Digital Library.
http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/viewtext/8118036?n=9&imagesize=1200&jp2Res=.25
And I quote from a highly respected medicine website:
Chickenpox has nothing at all to do with chicken. The name was meant to distinguish this “weak” form of the pox from smallpox. “Chicken” is used here, as in “chickenhearted,” to mean weak or timid. The “pox” of chickenpox is no major matter unless it becomes infected (through scratching) or occurs in an immunodeficient person.
The above is the whole quote. For more, see
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5957
“Most people, however, reckon the name comes from the resemblance of the chickenpox spots to chick peas, with the blisters looking like they have been placed on the skin. ”
http://www.ratlab.co.uk/pox.htm
” When chicken pox was first described, it was noted that the pox lesions looked more like they were placed upon the skin rather than being a part of the skin themselves. In fact, people long ago felt they looked like chick peas placed upon the skin. The Latin word for chick peas is cicer which is the original word that chicken pox got its name.
So you see, chicken pox has nothing to do with chickens, but the red bumps you have on your body were once thought to look like the vegetable called chick peas.”
http://parenting.ivillage.com/tp/tphealth/0,,3q8n,00.html
I think the name comes from some resemblance of the disease to fowl pox or avian pox. Avian Pox is caused by a related but different virus and affects several different birds both backyard chickens and wild birds.
Haven’t got chicken pox yet. I’m 16 and still chicken pox-less. Hope I don’t get it. I’ll be scratching my butt off [literally] . LOL
I guess there’s reasons why they call it chicken pox after research was done but in my opinion, i think it’s because…i don’t know.
A diseased chicken pecked some poor guy and the guy developed chicken pox. Haha
i had chicken pox twice. its very rare but it can happen if your immune system is weak or the first time you barely have any pox. in most healthy people if it does come back it comes as shingles. but for a very unlucky few we can get it again…
you can get chicken pox twice. If the first strain you got was very light, and you get a different strain of it, it is possible. I got chicken pox twice when I was a child. The doctor said it was because I only had three sores the first time. Also did you know that the chicken pox virus also causes shingles? Shingles is what you get as an adult if you’ve already had chicken pox.