CHICKEN POX VACCINE
Chickenpox vaccines can protect kids from the inconvenient, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous disease. Chickenpox is commonly thought of as an annoying childhood disease, but not one that necessarily kills. Usually this is an itchy illness that keeps kids out of school.
But in some cases the chickenpox can make an individual very sick, from associated illnesses like pneumonia.
With all the questions surrounding the effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine, it’s important to answer the central question- does it work to reduce the risk of death from this virus?
Chickenpox vaccines can protect kids from the inconvenient, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous disease. Chickenpox is commonly thought of as an annoying childhood disease, but not one that necessarily kills. Usually this is an itchy illness that keeps kids out of school. But in some cases the chickenpox can make an individual very sick, from associated illnesses like pneumonia.
With all the questions surrounding the effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine, it’s important to answer the central question- does it work to reduce the risk of death from this virus?
Dorenee Curet is making sure her son Rogelio gets the chickenpox vaccine. “I’m nervous for him, but I know that it’s better for him to get the shot than for him to end up with the chickenpox.” It’s a ‘No Pain, No Gain’ situation when it comes to getting immunizations, and like any other parent, Dorenee doesn’t like to see her son cry when getting a shot.
But chickenpox vaccines save lives, and the latest study shows that deaths from chickenpox in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level ever after the chickenpox vaccine to prevent the childhood disease was introduced in 1995. That’s according to new research in the New England Journal of Medicine. The rate of death due to chickenpox fluctuated from 1990 through 1998 and then declined sharply. The greatest reduction was seen among children 1 to 4 years of age. Death rates plummeted 92% in this group.
Until the chickenpox vaccine became available in 1995, nearly everyone got a case of chickenpox, which is highly contagious. Dr. Elaine Dinolfo is a pediatrician at Montefiore Medical Center in New York who says, “There were over ten thousand hospitalizations each year for complications of the chickenpox, of which 60% were children. And each year 100 to 150 people die of complications of chickenpox. So it could be a serious infection, and that was the impetuous behind the development of the chickenpox vaccine, and then universal immunization.”
Even the healthiest of children and adults can die of complications, including pneumonia, and brain infections like meningitis. Still, as effective as the virus is at preventing deaths, the chickenpox vaccine is only about 80 percent effective, and vaccinated children can still get a mild case of chickenpox. Some health experts are calling for a second, or booster shot.
“It’s recommended that all healthy children between 12-18 months get the chickenpox vaccine. Children above 13 months should get two chickenpox vaccinations, whereas the 12 -18 months only needs one,” says Dr. Dinolfo.
Overall, this study shows a hugely dramatic success story for the chickenpox vaccination program. Still, it’s the awful itching that Dorenee remembers as a child which is the biggest reason she is having her son vaccinated against chickenpox.“I had them for a week and it’s terrible,” recalls Dorenee.
Now while most of the cases, hospitalizations and deaths occurred in children, when adults get the chickenpox, it can be a serious event. And unvaccinated children who get chickenpox become vectors, a source of the disease to spread it to susceptible older individuals.
People who are immuno-compromised, including people with cancer, or undergoing chemotherapy, and people with HIV and AIDS, cannot get vaccinated against chickenpox. Also, anyone on medicine like high dose steroids that suppresses the immune system cannot get the chickenpox vaccine.
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