Don't count your chicken pox before you're well.

"Over the past couple of years, there hasn't been a semester that we haven't had a student in with chicken pox," said Pat Irwin, acting primary care coordinator at the University's Ritenour Health Center.

Already this semester one student returned home to wait out the virus, Irwin said. Since June, seven students have been admitted to Ritenour's observation room with chicken pox, Irwin added.

The first symptoms of the chicken pox virus are similar to many other sicknesses: low-grade fever, headache and general exhaustion.

Chicken pox is most contagious during the first 36 hours after symptoms appear, Irwin said. Since the virus is transmitted through droplets created by coughing and sneezing, students can easily contract it in classes or at a dining hall, she said.

The first indication of chicken pox is red, itchy lesions all over the body, Irwin said. The virus lasts five to 10 days, she added, and infected people should not touch other people until the lesions crust over. Scarring occurs when a person scratches the lesions too much, causing an infection, Irwin said.

Between July 1, 1988, and June 30, 1989, Ritenour treated eight chicken pox cases, she said. Between July 1, 1989, and June 30, 1990, Ritenour treated 13 students. Irwin said she expects to see more cases this semester.

Dr. Wayne E. Bishop, a pediatrician whose practice is located at 611 University Dr., treated about 20 cases of chicken pox last year, Bishop's receptionist said.

If a person has already had chicken pox, Irwin said, the body usually builds up an immunity to the disease. Only if a person had a mild case of the virus should he or she worry about contracting the disease again, she added.

"In my experience it is very rare," Irwin said. "Once you've had them, (getting chicken pox again) is the exception to the rule."

And because chicken pox is widely considered a childhood illness, adults who contract the virus may feel more run down than a child would, she said.

"Generally speaking, childhood diseases hit adults harder," Irwin said. "When kids get sick, they seem to be able to handle it a little bit better."