Are Chickenpox More Common In The Spring?

Chickenpox is a very common disease that mainly affects young children. Because of this, many parents are wary in the winter and spring when this disease is more common. But why are chickenpox more common in the spring?

Its tendency to spread in the spring may seem counterintuitive. After all, with the exception of allergies and some other diseases, most seasonal diseases peak in the fall and winter.

Facts about chickenpox

Before looking at why chickenpox is more common in the spring, it is necessary to know a little more about this condition. Let’s look at the information below:

• Chickenpox is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus. This pathogen has a double-stranded DNA molecule. It is also genetically related to the herpes simplex virus.
• Chickenpox is a classic childhood disease. And unless children are vaccinated, they are likely to get this disease before adolescence.

• This virus is only transmitted from person to person. It may be due to direct contact with skin rash or coughing and sneezing. It is also quite contagious. Researchers have discovered that 80 to 90% of people around a patient can get it.
• The characteristic symptoms of this disease are the appearance of blisters all over the body, which tend to be very itchy.

Now that we know the causes of this virus, we will look at a scientific article that attempts to link the spread of chickenpox with changes in temperature.

The effect of temperature on chickenpox

In 2012, the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology published an interesting study on chickenpox.

• They looked at the number of daily visits of patients with chickenpox and herpes zoster to a hospital in China between 2008 and 2010. They registered a total of 3,520 patients with chickenpox and 6,614 with herpes zoster.
• Thereafter, the climatic variables were collected every day from a meteorological station near the hospital. They looked at maximum and minimum temperatures, average temperature and average humidity.
• The researchers used statistical models to predict the relationship between both variables (number of infections and weather).

The results were, to say the least, counterintuitive. They observed that for each degree the average temperature increased, the number of patients with chickenpox decreased by 1.33%. However, the number of patients with herpes zoster increased by 2.18%.

The relationship between both parameters is very complex as both diseases are related. After all, shingles is a reactivation of chickenpox virus.

Are chickenpox more common in the spring?

So are chickenpox more common in the spring? The results can be very confusing. Researchers have observed that chickenpox is seasonal and in many places there are more cases during the spring.

Therefore, the fact that the incidence decreases with increasing temperatures is actually not so strange. However, researchers have some reservations. We have described them below:

• The incubation period for chickenpox is 10 to 21 days. Therefore, the transmission mechanism may be at peak levels in late winter, but the symptoms do not appear until the first spring month.

• They conducted the study at a single hospital. Therefore, we should not take the results as 100% credible.
• Other research suggests that the dynamics of transmission of shingles and chickenpox may be affected by vaccination programs.

• Herpes zoster remains latent in the body after chickenpox. Sudden temperature changes can affect the immune system and reduce its effectiveness. This reduced efficiency may give the virus a change to reactivate during the spring.
• The combination of high temperatures and ultraviolet rays from the sun can cause suppression of immunity. Therefore, it is easier for the virus to make the patient symptomatic.

So what is the clearest answer to the question “are chickenpox more common in the spring?” It is not entirely clear why there are more cases of chickenpox in the spring.

It seems that an increase in temperature reduces the transmission. However, the dynamics of herpes zoster reactivation, vaccination programs, and changes in human habits can also greatly alter this epidemiological condition.