I remember hearing as a kid that if you didn’t get the chicken pox when you were young, it would kill you as an adult. Is it true and if so, what are the chances of it being fatal?
HPL could be right. Chicken Pox in adults can be quite dangerous and a person might die.
The chances are pretty low. Chicken pox can occasionally cause encephalitis, which is usually not fatal. I’d guess one in 100,000 or less.
Ok. Two opposite answers from two opposite (nearly) ends of the Americas.
This was a common belief when I was a kid too. I remember being pretty darn sick with chicken pox myself. I still have some cute little scars.
Do kids still get the Mumps?
Peace,
mangeorge
Here is a little more information from the same cite that I posted above:
Deaths in Florida in 1998:
http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a3.htm
In 1998 there were six known chicken pox deaths; 2 kids and 4 adults. They quote a death rate of 0.4 per million people, which might not be that far from 1 in 100,000 for adults if they have twice the rate of dying. But it might not be kosher to extrapolate these numbers to different populations.
According to the CDC (warning: link to PDF document), there were 231 cases of mumps in the U.S. in 2001, down from a immunization era high of 12,848 in 1987. The CDC estimates that there were 212,000 cases in 1964.
Just to emphasize for those of you focusing on the OP and not the subsequent posts’ explanation, while it’s more severe and threatening in adults, you’re not likely to die. You might just wish you’d die (I speak from personal experience) but the wish is not usually granted.