chickenpox

n. viral disease that mainly affects children (characterized by headache, fever and itchy red blisters on the skin and mucous membranes)

Chickenpox is the common name for Varicella zoster, classically one of the childhood infectious diseases caught by and survived by almost every child.Chickenpox is caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), also known as human herpes virus 3 (HHV-3), one of the eight herpes viruses known to affect humans. It starts with conjunctival and catarrhal symptoms and then characteristic spots appearing in two or three waves, mainly on the body and head rather than the hands and becoming itchy raw pox (pocks), small open sores which heal mostly without scarring.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Chickenpox is a common and extremely infectious childhood disease that also affects adults on occasion. [more]Chickenpox - Community and Resources

Noun
1. an acute contagious disease caused by herpes varicella zoster virus; causes a rash of vesicles on the face and body
(synonym) varicella
(hypernym) pox

A highly infectious viral disease, chickenpox is known medically (and in many countries) as varicella. Chickenpox has nothing to do with chicken. The name was meant to distinguish this "weak" form of the pox from smallpox (chicken being used, as in chickenhearted, to mean weak or timid). The "pox" of chickenpox is no major matter unless infected (through scratching) or occur in an immunodeficient person. However, there can be very major problems with chickenpox including pneumonia and encephalitis, particularly in adults but also sometimes in children, and reactivation of the same herpes virus is reponsible for shingles (zoster). The current aim in the U.S. is to achieve universal (or nearly universal) immunization of children with the chickenpox vaccine.