Where Did Chickenpox Come From

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Where Did Chickenpox Come From ?

Chicken pox is one of the most common childhood diseases and it has been there for several hundreds of years by now. It was common to the English for centuries, and they called it the blistering disease or boils disease. Several centuries ago people thought that the disease was caused by chicken and that is why it got its name as chicken pox.

Some of the possible explanations as to why they called it the chicken pox were because the blisters that appeared on the body looked like chicken pecks. The disease may also have been named after chick peas. The word chicken pox also comes from the old English word known as giccan, which means itching. The disease was first called cow pox in England because they believed it was passed on from cows.

Chicken pox was very prevalent in countries like England., France and Germany and other neighboring countries. When the English started exploring and settling in other countries, the disease also spread to the United States. It was more prevalent in the 17th and 18th centuries especially.

The earlier treatment for chicken pox was by using various herbs and medicines to relieve the itching. Mostly people aw the itching as a greater discomfort and always tried to cure it first. It was never considered as a deadly disease and the fatalities caused by the disease were always low. There were deadlier diseases like small pox then. To be specific, chicken pox actually came from England and until then, it was unheard of in several other places.

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Chickenpox Facts

Chicken pox is termed as a childhood disease and is an extremely contagious one caused by a virus. It causes blisters on the skin. The virus of the chicken pox spreads from person to person on coming in contact with each other or touching the liquid when the blisters burst. More..