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,
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My mother told me it was because the bumps made your skin look like the bumps on the skin of a de-feathered chicken carcass.
I don’t have an appropriate link to back this up, except for prayer as my mother’s in Heaven now.
chickens gobble.
i’ve got chicken pox. cool
You have herpes. Don’t spread it around.
I got chicken pox twice. I asked my teacher about it, apparently my body only memorized certain strings of the virus and I hadn’t developed complete immunities for it. But i’ve always had a weak immune system
This is meant in a teaching manner. Kids have many RITES of passage. A right is not a rite. Just had to let you know.
That is an very interesting question. I too have wondered where the term chicken pox” came from in the first place.
“For instance, in his Exanthemologia of 1730, Thomas Fuller suggested that it was from “the smallness of the Specks, which [our Women] might fancy looked as tho’ a Child had been picked with the Bills of Chickens.”
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/321/7262/682.pdf
Amer.Eng. Chicken pox (c.1730) may be a disparaging name because of their mildness compared to smallpox
http://www.etymonline.com
hey mike…
i have a lot of acne on my face. im in sixth grade, and everyone makes fun of me. i used to be one of the cool kids…now all the cool or popular kids ignor me or as i walk by they say they hate me and laugh. i still have my normal friends who dont care about it…but all the boys make fun of me. and the guy i really like hates me because of my acne…its hard to go to a school where everyone hates me and makes fun of me…
any advise??
You had to ask that? What do they teach in 8th grade biology these days…..sigh.
Longshiren – thanks for the catch! – Mitzi
“Rites” of passage, please…
What are RITES?
Actually having CHICKEN POX is part one, and many years later, they can arise again, this time called Herpes Zoster, or Shingles. Same Virus. This is a good reason to get immunizations for the young, before they get the virus the first time.
I had chicken pox twice, and I had the vacciene I also had measels even though I had had the vacciene for it, can you explain that one? the doctors couldnt come up with a good reason LOL
I got it 9 times,:( it was so terrible
Now I Know!
Thanks for the tip. I havent had the C.P’s yet. 
hey mike…
i have a bit of a problem. im in sixth grade, and i know its kinda unusual to have this problem already, but i do. im a cheerleader, and everyone thinks im pretty, but im kinda insecure about myself, so i dont talk to the guy i like. i just moved to this school from florida, and now im living in chicago. i have had a lot of boyfriends, but i really like this guy, and hes really cute, but everytime i try talking to him, people think im flirting with him, but im normally not. and when they say that, i feel bad, and they say not to cause he has a girlfriend. but he only has a girlfriend when i start liking him again. =[
please help,
lexi
i got it twice when i was a kid if u get stressed out like i was it can come back thats wat the doc said so i dunno bout shingles it came back as pox.
Something that will make you go “hmmmmm?”
When I was 30 years old and living overseas — had not been home in about a year, I came down with the chicken pox. Sicker than the proverbial dog. Didn’t know what I had for three days, as I was stuck on a boat, and I thought I had some kind of food poisoning and some kind of allergy.
What I didn’t know was that my 17 yr. old brother 4000 miles away, came down with the chicken pox the very same week-end that I did.
Go figure that one. True story — no lie. Nearly 30 years later, I still have a couple of scars.
i think that it is called “chicken pox” because it looks as though they have been pecked at by a chicken. that is my theory, but i doubt its right.
thats a great stament
chicken pox is caused by a lysogenic virus.
this means that when the virus injects its DNA into the host cell, it becomes integrated into the cell’s chromosome, rather than immediately being used to manufacture more viruses.
every time the cell goes through mitosis, the chromosome is copied–and so is the virus’s genetic information.
the virus will remain dormant until the lytic cycle is triggered; then the disease will run its course. however, the virus’s genetic information remains a part of the cell’s chromosomal make-up, and if at any time the lytic cycle is triggered again, someone can actually have chicken pox again.
but this is unlikely, because the body’s antibody immunity will probably have a memory of the antigen from the leftover plasma cells that fought off the infection in the first place.
-source: 9th grade biology-
so, yea…
as for the name, according to Wikipedia–which is not super reliable, i know, teh name has several proposed origins (some of which have already been posted):
-Samuel Johnson suggested that the disease was “less dangerous”, thus a “chicken” version of the pox;
-the specks that appear looked as though the skin was pecked by chickens;
-the disease was named after chick peas, from a supposed similarity in size of the seed to the lesions;
-the term reflects a corruption of the Old English word giccin, which meant itching.
-As “pox” also means curse, in medieval times some believed it was a plague brought on to curse children by the use of black magic.
“What’s in a name? That which the English call Chicken
Pox, the Dutch call Water Pox and the Germans call
them Wind Pox. The official medical term is
‘varicella’ which means ‘little pox’
I think the names illustrate that people could only
guess where the disease came from. We don’t get it
from chickens, but the virus does survive in little
drops of water, that are carried by the air. So the
Dutch and Germans were closer to the truth than the
English.”
Dr. Trudy Wassenaar
-source: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99900.htm-
Ok i never had chiken pox cuz i got shots hahha
so y should i care
I have had them 3 times :O lol
chicken pox do return as Shingles in older individuals
I actually NEVER had chickenpox, no one on my mothers side of the family has. There are six children in total, and all of us were exposed to the virus an unbelievable amount of times, but we never caught it.
The oldest of us, my brother, is in his mid 30’s, none of his children (10, 4, 6) have had it either.
We’ve just got an immunity strand in our genes, I suppose.
hi mikei had the chicken pox once and it was uncomfortable to say the least.i realy dont know how the name chicken pox came about,but i hear a lot of kids saying chicken pops.i only hope this doesnt return as the shingles. they say the virus lies dormant in the body then it comes back in a persons later years as shingles.
Yeah — I’m the one who had it when she was 30, and I had shingles when I was 40. That was worse than the “pops”.
Eergh, I got shingles at 14! How ridiculous is that? They are super miserable too…I had chicken pox when I was three so at least I don’t remember that. Whatever the name, they are no fun to have.
My parents always told me that each bump looked like chicken. That was their theory.
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.
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…
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 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.
“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
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
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
You have herpes. Don’t spread it around, douchebag…
shut it this has nuthing to do with herps!
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
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.
When I first saw this Entry I though it was about Itchy and Scratchy on the simpsons…..
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
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
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.
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.
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.
They’re called ‘chicken pox’ because it looks like you got pecked (whatever you want to call it) multiple times by a chicken.
why is it that yahoo staff are allowed to post rants and chatting ‘questions’ while the rest of the world gets suspended???
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
U BRING UP STRANGE THINGS!!(weirdo)