Any rash on the skin of a child or adult is a symptom of many diseases that can have a different origin, for example, allergic, infectious, autoimmune. But with each such pathology, the rashes look completely different, have some distinctive features, thanks to which you can conduct an accurate differential diagnosis. However, many do not know how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies. To answer this question, it is necessary to consider in detail the symptoms of these two pathologies.
How to distinguish chickenpox from allergies
To understand the nature of the formation of a rash, you need to pay attention to a number of several nuances. They help to figure out how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies. For instance:
- Is there any investigative connection, for example, changes on the skin can occur due to the use of some new product in the daily diet, when using some new cleaning or detergent that has never been used before.
- Before you distinguish chickenpox from an allergy, you need to pay attention to how exactly the rashes on the body look. A huge role here is played by the shade of neoplasms, the shade of the surrounding skin near the rashes, whether these neoplasms appear above the surface of the skin, or if the rash disappears during pressure.
- When answering the question of how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies or rubella, for example, you should carefully consider whether rashes on the mucous membranes exist.
- Particular attention should be paid to the presence or absence of itching.
- The general condition of the human body also plays a significant role in determining the nature of the origin of the rashes. These include fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and more.
Quite often there are cases when adults do not know how to distinguish allergies from chickenpox in children. After all, with such diseases, rashes on the body are very similar to each other. To avoid a possible error during the diagnosis, you should understand this issue in detail.
Similar symptoms of allergies and chickenpox
To understand how to distinguish allergies from chickenpox in children and adults, it is necessary to analyze the common features of these two diseases. Both during chickenpox and during an allergic reaction, the following symptoms occur:
- Rashes on the skin. The nature of the rashes in this case is vesicular, spotty-papular. This rash is determined in various parts of the skin.
- Both diseases are accompanied by skin itching.
- Quite often, rashes are accompanied by signs of catarrhal disorders, which should include coughing or runny nose.
Disease difference
Now it is worthwhile to consider in more detail the features that indicate how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies in a child and an adult:
- The rash during chickenpox is wavy in nature, in which new elements are formed on the skin at the same time or periodically. In this case, it is worth paying attention to the fact that each new wave of the appearance of a rash is accompanied by an increase in body temperature, but a mild course of the disease is possible, when the temperature does not increase.
- In a disease caused by herpes virus, rashes are polymorphic in nature. This suggests that spots, crusts and vesicles simultaneously appear on the skin. As for allergic manifestations, the option when all neoplasms look the same is considered more natural for them. In addition, the rash during an allergic reaction can merge, and can also be represented as one large spot. This happens in the morning, which can be explained by the natural release of certain adrenal hormones.
- Rashes on the mucous membranes are a characteristic sign of chickenpox. Small vesicular neoplasms can also occur on the conjunctiva, oropharynx, and genitals.
These signs indicate how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies in an adult and a child.
Additional symptoms
In addition to the main similar signs, there are also those that are inherent only for infectious chickenpox. The following symptoms should be included here:
- Sore throat, which is caused by the formation of rashes on the mucous membranes.
- During the use of antihistamines, the rash provoked by an allergic reaction begins to lose its intensity, itching disappears, and during chickenpox, the rash zone begins to itch strongly, despite the fact that the patient is taking medication. Quite often, rashes caused by allergies may not itch at all. This rash is often formed on the swollen or reddened background of the skin. During chickenpox, the skin, as a rule, does not change its color.
- Considering how to distinguish chickenpox from an allergy, the symptoms of which nevertheless have some differences, an epidemic history should be taken into account. In other words, it is necessary to consider the likely contact with a patient who suffers from chickenpox. Often the diagnosis is based on the fact that in a team, for example, where at least one case of chickenpox has been recorded, there is a likelihood of a recurrence of the disease. The incubation period of chickenpox is from 1 to 3 weeks from the moment of contact with a sick person.
- There are also a number of allergic reactions during which the rashes are very similar to those with chickenpox. In this case, you can understand from a blood test how to distinguish chickenpox from an allergy.
It should be noted that sometimes it is even difficult for doctors to identify the differences between an allergic reaction and chickenpox. To do this, determine the number of antibodies to the virus. Thanks to this, you can understand whether immunity exists after a disease. First of all, the indicator of total immunoglobulin E, as well as the allergological panel help to identify the presence of individual intolerance to a particular allergen. Based on this, it can be concluded that the easiest way to understand from the analysis is how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies.
Manifestations of pathology in adults
You should immediately pay attention to the fact that the symptoms and signs of chickenpox in adults are more pronounced and severe. If the patient had contact with a sick person, then during the incubation period, which lasts about 3 weeks, the first signs appear in the form of lethargy, weakness, fever and the formation of a rash, which is typical for chickenpox.
An unusual clinical picture can be observed if an allergy to specific medicines that were taken during chickenpox has formed on the skin. As a rule, in this case, the skin syndrome is greatly aggravated, even additional treatment methods may be required, for example, taking hormonal drugs, antihistamines, as well as detoxification with droppers.
Is chickenpox reappearance possible
If we talk about repeated manifestations of chickenpox, then in an adult, it can be represented as shingles, which is very similar in appearance to contact dermatitis. In this case, certain laboratory tests will help diagnose the disease.
Rashes in children
It is quite difficult to understand how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies in infants. The fact is that the chickenpox epidemic among young children, as a rule, is observed in the spring and autumn.
Diagnosis in this case can be very difficult if rashes appear that look similar to chickenpox, but the parents claim that their child has already had this disease. However, such cases are known when repeated infection situations appear.
To distinguish chickenpox from an allergic reaction, it is necessary to pass a series of tests that show the presence of antibodies in the blood to chickenpox.
In some cases, the course of an infectious disease can have not quite classic symptoms. For example, such a disease may be similar to the initial stage of development in acute respiratory infections, because of which parents begin to widely use antipyretic syrups. A late formation of rashes is often mistaken for a drug allergy. Such errors also occur in those situations if, in addition to a few spots on the skin, no other signs of infection are found.
It is always necessary to donate blood for a general analysis in order to prevent such errors.
Opinions of doctors
It may seem at first glance that it is very easy to identify the differences between an infectious rash and an allergic reaction. But those signs that were described above are true only for the classical course of these ailments. Considering the characteristics of each organism and a number of other factors, for example, taking medications that can greatly change the symptoms of the disease, it should be noted that the disease acquires atypical signs for itself, which is why diagnosis even from the side of an experienced specialist can sometimes be difficult.
The danger of self-medication
In both cases, experts recommend abandoning self-medication. Do not be lazy to visit a medical institution to confirm or refute your own guesses. Incompetence in this case can cause a deterioration in health, and in some cases it can become a threat to life.
Sometimes, especially during the development of chickenpox, the patient may require specific antiviral treatment, since delaying the start of therapy can trigger the development of meningitis, pneumonia, or encephalitis. Therefore, in no case can one ignore the appearance of any symptoms on the skin and engage in self-medication.
Diagnosis of urticaria
For example, the use of hormonal drugs during the treatment of urticaria should be considered. As a rule, they relieve the patient of itching, quickly remove puffiness and redness from the body, but with chickenpox, these medications can cause bacterial complications on the skin.
Important points
Rashes in absolutely any infectious disease must be differentiated with an allergic reaction and other viral exanthema. Any ailment has its own characteristics of the course, in particular, this applies to skin syndrome.
During chickenpox and a skin allergic reaction, a papular-spotted rash forms. However, during chickenpox, rashes are more extensive, occurring on the mucous membranes. Also, with chickenpox, crusts, papules, spots and vesicles form on the body. Such a rash is accompanied by an increase in body temperature.
Both types of rashes can appear in a person at any age, but as for chickenpox, this ailment is recorded mainly in childhood.
In order not to doubt the diagnosis, it is necessary to contact the laboratory in time and pass special tests.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth noting that specialists strongly recommend that patients, if any changes occur on the skin, contact a medical institution for help. This is due to the fact that the treatment of pathologies such as chicken pox and an allergic reaction will differ significantly. Thanks to this, it will be possible to avoid the re-development of an unpleasant disease, and the prescribed medications for chickenpox in time can save the patient from possible complications. It is worth remembering that sometimes self-medication and a mistake in the diagnosis can become fatal for the life of the patient. Externally, you can understand from the photo how to distinguish chickenpox from allergies.