Common Childhood Diseases Like Chickenpox Measles Mumps Whooping Cough

A number of diseases occur in childhood, although they might occur in adulthood as well, but some common childhood diseases like chickenpox, measles, mumps are more common at a younger age than at an older age. They often cause trouble and is accompanied with sickness.

Common childhood diseases consist of chicken pox, measles, fifth disease, hand, face and mouth disease etc. Each of them is caused due to different reasons and generally children suffer from these common diseases. A virus that results in blister like lesions on the body, spreading over the face, scalp and other places of the body causes chicken pox. It is highly contagious and spreads easily from one infected person to the other, generally through coughing and sneezing. However, vaccines are now available that can prevent this disease.

Mumps is another common childhood diseases caused due to the mumps virus that results in swelling of the salivary glands and is accompanied with fever, loss of appetite, headache, muscle ache etc. It can often be serious but is generally not known to have severe effects. It is infectious and can spread through saliva or any related material. Scabies is another disease that affects the skin and can easily spread due to contact with the infectious regions. Appearing as rashes in the skin, they cause itching that might often lead to bacterial infections due to scratching.

Generally children less than 10 years of age can be subjected to one of the common childhood diseases called Hand Foot and Mouth disease. This generally shows symptoms of mild fever, feelings of sickness and loss of appetite in children. At the onset fever and sores in the mouth accompany it. Rashes, which look like blisters also appear and cause, sever discomfort in children as they grow inside the mouth, developing painful ulcers in the gums, cheek, tongue etc.

Fifth Disease is also one of the common childhood diseases that are visible as a rash on the face, trunk and limbs, although the child is generally not very ill due to the disease. However, itching, malaise and slight fever might be noticed in children suffering from this disease. Whooping cough is another disease that affects children and consists of severe coughing, caused due to a bacterial infection. Close contact with the mucous membrane discharges of affected people spreads the disease in others due to its extremely contagious nature.

Although some diseases are referred to as common childhood diseases, there is no guarantee that they would not occur in adults and even adults can acquire the diseases. But it is found most frequently in younger children and therefore can be classified in this category. Development of vaccines for most diseases has brought about chances of prevention of the diseases. Marteglass