# Why is chickenpox worse in adults than in children? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741 "2008-07-08T19:53:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/1 "2008-07-08T19:53:45Z")
Pretty clear. Infected adults suffer from worse blisters and more complications. People want their kids to get chicken pox so they won’t suffer later. Why do adults fare worse? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/2 "2008-07-08T20:02:09Z")
What I’ve been told is that one of the problems that occurs mostly in adults from chickenpox is varicella pneumonia. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/3 "2008-07-08T20:02:29Z")
Anecdotal (because I can’t find a cite) but I recall being told that it was because children have more resilient immune systems and bodies that are relatively and generally unravaged by illnesses that can create chinks in the armor of adults later in life, so when it hits, a child’s body is better able to fight it off than an adult. Salt, grain, etc. and I’m sure someone will be along with a better answer. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/4 "2008-07-08T20:32:30Z")
A lot of diseases are much more dangerous the older you get them. I have always heard but have no cite that better sanitation was one reason for the polio epidemic in the first half of the last century - previously the disease was everywhere and people got it as babies and got over it, but after conditions improved they got it as older children and died or suffered lasting effects. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/5 "2008-07-08T20:41:48Z")
I’ve recently tried to find the answer to your interesting question. Alas, I don’t think anyone really knows. Perhaps related is the idea that other viral infections (? which specific ones) when acquired at a young age are usually harmless. On the other hand, if one gets them at a more advanced age (say as a young adult), multiple sclerosis might develop. This is highly speculative, though. It’s also interesting, and possibly related, that the more sterile the environment that an animal lives in, the more likely it is to get so-called autoimmune diseases. In other words, when there’s nothing to keep the immune system legitimately occupied, it may get into mischief. Perhaps a similar thing is going on with chicken pox in adults. Adults are less likely to have their immune systems being stimulated (and kept as “busy”) as kids’. Hence, when they get certain viral illnesses such as chicken pox, their immune systems, having nothing much else to do, go full tilt and “overkill”. The result may be things like an attack on the lungs or lining of the brains. Again, this is speculative. And please forgive my anthropomorphic descriptions. Still, I thnk it helps conceptualize. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/6 "2008-07-08T21:51:48Z")
Slight hijack: how bad/treatable is chickenpox as a disease nowadays? Wikipedia tells me it’s caused by a virus, so I’m assuming there’s no real “cures”… The reason I’m asking is because I’m 22 and I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough not to get it yet. Should I be concerned? ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/7 "2008-07-08T22:03:09Z")
Is adult chickenpox the same thing as shingles? My dad had that when he was in his 60s or 70s and he was miserable. > **[Shingles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles)** > > Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. Two to four days before the rash occurs there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Other common symptoms are fever, headache, and tiredness. The rash usually heals within two to four weeks; however, some people develop ongoing n Shingles is caused b... ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/8 "2008-07-08T22:25:50Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Is adult chickenpox the same thing as shingles? My dad had that when he was in his 60s or 70s and he was miserable. > **[Shingles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles)** > > Shingles, also known as herpes zoster or zona, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. Two to four days before the rash occurs, there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Other common symptoms are fever, headache, and tiredness. The rash usually heals within two to four weeks, but some people develop ongoing ner Shingles is caused by th... [/QUOTE] Shingles is a reccurance of the virus. The viral disease Varicella Zoster causes Chickenpox when you first become infected. It can then go into latency in your cells. The reoccurance presents as Shingles (Herpes Zoster) typically decades after chickenpox, which is why you tend to see it in the elderly. From the medical lit I’ve reviewed, it can appear in app 20% of those that had chickenpox. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/9 "2008-07-08T23:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Is adult chickenpox the same thing as shingles? My dad had that when he was in his 60s or 70s and he was miserable. > **[Shingles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles)** > > Shingles, also known as herpes zoster or zona, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or face. Two to four days before the rash occurs, there may be tingling or local pain in the area. Other common symptoms are fever, headache, and tiredness. The rash usually heals within two to four weeks, but some people develop ongoing ner Shingles is caused by th... [/QUOTE] To elaborate further, localized zoster (shingles) is a painful, debilitating nuisance for most of those that get this recurrence of the zoster virus, erupting in the skin along a specific, localized nerve root. Adult Disseminated Varicella Zoster (Adult Chicken pox) is (usually) a first-time infection with the zoster virus, occurring in an adult, where one has the lesions from head to toe, and often in the lungs and in the brain. The last two complications cause problems… ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/10 "2008-07-09T03:27:44Z")
[QUOTE=BrandonR] Slight hijack: how bad/treatable is chickenpox as a disease nowadays? Wikipedia tells me it’s caused by a virus, so I’m assuming there’s no real “cures”… The reason I’m asking is because I’m 22 and I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough not to get it yet. Should I be concerned? [/QUOTE] Get the vaccine! Get it now - do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars! My doctor made me get it when I turned 15 and still hadn’t gotten the chicken pox, because it’s seriously dangerous to get it as an adult. Not to mention that it’s more likely to involve cosmetic scarring and such and just be generally really sucky. I know somebody distantly who did die from it as an adult. I do think it’s dumb to vaccinate kids against it, though. Are we going to vaccinate it for everything? Also, I understand that there’s some thought that we might get more shingles if adults don’t come into contact with the virus every so often with their kids getting it. ETA - to elaborate, according to Wikipedia in the US 55% of deaths from chicken pox are in patients over 20, although they account for a very small number of the cases. This isn’t something to play around with. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/11 "2008-07-09T03:39:37Z")
I had chicken pox as an adult and while I had no scarring or serious complications, when I went back to work I had such severe fatigue I could only work part time for about 5 months. Took another 8 months to build my workouts back to their former levels. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-chickenpox-worse-in-adults-than-in-children/455741/12 "2008-07-09T15:52:33Z")
I was lucky, and had a very mild case of the chicken pox at age 19. I only missed about two weeks of the quarter, and my professors were very good at working with me to make up the work–as a matter of fact, that was my first 4.0 quarter in college. I probably only had 30 lesions on my whole body, with none below my waist. The only problem was that I initially broke out on my face, so I squeezed two of them thinking they were zits. Those are two nice little scars on my face now.