[header] How to avoid getting chicken pox while helping an infected person [title] Understand how the chickenpox virus spreads. [step] The virus is highly contagious and spreads in the air through airborne particles that come from the lesions on the skin or from the upper respiratory tract. You can also contract the virus from contact with open lesions when you touch your face, nose, or mouth. 
[substeps] The disease takes 10 to 21 days after exposure to develop. From studies of transmission across household members, approximately 90% of people with close contact with infected individuals will develop the disease.