Q: My son got chicken pox last week (10 days). Though his blisters have come down, his fever is not going down and has gone up to 103 degrees in the last 2 days. The doctor said that though his chest was clear he couldn't rule out infection. Hence, he gave us amoxycillin. For fever we give him ibuprofen, which brings down his temperature for sometime but it again rises back. Are we on right track? Has he developed any complications?

A:Usually the fever comes down once the chicken pox lesions get scabbed. Persistence of fever can indicate presence of an associated infection. The common infections after chicken pox include skin infection and lung infection. These should usually, though not invariably, respond to amoxycillin. Other infections include middle ear infection, urinary infection etc. These can be diagnosed clinically/ by appropriate tests.