How did chicken pox get its name?

How did the sickness Chicken-Pox Get Its Name?

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  • Answer:

    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.

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when you got little spots and a fever a person was by chikens alot

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One history of medicine book claims Giovanni Filippo (1510–1580) of Palermo the first description of varicella (chickenpox). Subsequently in the 1600s, an English physician named Richard Morton described what he thought was a mild form of smallpox as "chicken pox." Later, in 1767, a physician named William Heberden, also from England, was the first physician to clearly demonstrate that chickenpox was different from smallpox. However, it is believed the name chickenpox was commonly used in earlier centuries before doctors identified the disease. There are many explanations offered for the origin of the name chickenpox: the specks that appear looked as though the skin was picked by chickens, the disease was named after chick peas, from a supposed similarity in size of the seed to the lesions Samuel Johnson suggested that the disease was "no very great danger," thus a "chicken" version of the pox 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. During the medieval era, oatmeal was discovered to soothe the sores, and oatmeal baths are today still commonly given to relieve itching. In 1998, Dr. Charles F. Grose and Dr. Richard Santos discovered a Mutant form of Chickenpox. This is phenotypic ally different from VZV 32, which is the wild type. The Mutant forms of viruses can often be attributed to contamination of the wild-type in nature. Mutant forms are becoming more frequent with time.

It's actually called Varicella-Zoster Virus.

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