chickenpox parties? CHICKENPOX PARTIES?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=94588

Ouch.

[cantatrice]

I got chicken pox as an adult (22) and had permanent damage (asthma, chronic bronchitis) as a result. My kids got it
well before the vaccine came out (when my daughter got it, I made her share dishes, etc with my son). They were really
sick and miserable for only about 24 hours. If the vaccine had been available I think I still would have preferred that they get the natural immunity (vaccine is not tested yet over many years) but wouldn’t have hesitated to have them vaccinated for it if they had reached 9-10 years old without getting it. Chicken pox as an adult is too nasty.

[Ike_Witt]

This site has some very interesting information on the CP vaccine.

The FDA VAERS’ (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) first year surveillance of VARIVAX included over 1,500 reports. 76 were serious adverse reactions that included 2 deaths. While a VAERS report does not prove a causal relationship between the vaccine and the death or
disability that follows, the vaccine is highly suspect in all such reports.

2 deaths out of 1500+ vaccines is much worse odds than

The “case fatality” for the general population is 6.7/100,000. Yes, just .007%.

as cited by Hello Again.

Of course this is even of greater concern to me,

Studies show that up to 3% of VARIVAX recipients contract chicken pox from the vaccine, and that some chicken pox cases may be contracted from recently vaccinated children. Vaccine recipients may therefore pose a health risk to pregnant mothers or family members with chronic health problems or compromised immune systems.

This is not the first mention that I have seen in the last week of recently vaccinated people being the cause of outbreaks of the disease for which they had just been vaccinated.

As far as the shingles thing goes -

VARIVAX has an estimated effectiveness of 6 - 10 years. Vaccinated children may thus be unprotected as adults, when hospitalization and deaths from chickenpox occur at rates 10 and 20 times higher than in childhood, respectively. (Half of the measles cases in the late 1980’s outbreaks occurred in adolescents and adults–most of whom were vaccinated as children.)

Of course why would a modern company do something that didn’t insure themselves repeat business.

[Weirddave]

I had CP when I was 5 or so. It was terrible, sores the size of quarters on a 5 year old body. I couldn’t move w/o being in agony. My mom will cheerfully tell you I said “Mom, I wish I could just die” more than once. It was perhaps the worst week of my life, illness wise. You better believe I wish there had been a vaccine available.