the.com/varicella
The virus that gives you chickenpox once, then hides for decades plotting a sequel called shingles.
means The medical name for chickenpox, caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the itchy, spot-covered illness most people catch in childhood.
from From Latin, likely a diminutive spin-off of 'variola' (smallpox) — doctors needed a word for a milder, lesser cousin of that disease, so they shrank the name to match. The 'varius' root means 'spotted' or 'variegated,' which is exactly what it leaves you: a map of pink dots from scalp to toes.
- viral family
- a herpesvirus, so it never truly leaves
- dormancy trick
- hides silently in your nerve ganglia for life
- vaccine era
- routine shot since 1995 slashed US cases sharply
- adult risk
- infection after puberty hits much harder