Why is the virus entitled Chicken Pox when it is
contracted by humans?
How did Chicken Pox get its name? If cows can contract a virus entitled cow pox,
why is Chicken Pox Chicken Pox?
The reason is exactly that: because there is a chicken disease
called "chicken pox"...even "our " chicken pox isn't caused
by the same virus...
see, pox diseases are a complex of viral diseases in domestic
animals and men, marked mainly by eruptions of the skin and
mucous membranes. So there is for example: smallpox (men),
sheep pox, rabbit pox, horse pox, fowl pox, cow pox, mouse
pox, and so on...
Pox virus are the group of viruses responsible for small pox in
humans and a wide range of pox diseases in animals.
Chicken pox in humans is also called varicella and is caused
by a herpes virus.
Thanks for asking NEWTON!
(Dr. Mabel Rodrigues)
What's in a name? That which the English call Chicken
Pox, the Dutch call Water Pox and the Germans call
them Wind Pox. The official medical term is
'varicella' which means 'little pox'
I think the names illustrate that people could only
guess where the disease came from. We don't get it
from chickens, but the virus does survive in little
drops of water, that are carried by the air. So the
Dutch and Germans were closer to the truth than the
Dr. Trudy Wassenaar
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Update: June 2012