Funny you should mention that. I have some friends that are anti-vaccine. Instead of a party they were in a group that mailed each other clothes that infected kids had worn, so that their kids would also get chicken pox.
The mother is/was big in La Leche League. And she is a highly trained medical professional with her own practice (although not in communicable or childhood diseases).
When I was 4, my mother invited a chicken-poxed friend of mine over to play. She still thinks it was the right thing to do (this was prior to me starting school), and I only ended up with one scar.
I was never invited to a party exactly, but as soon as my cousins got it, my mother took me over there to play (I was six, they were six and four). I have one teeny-weeny scar you can’t even see.
The only REALLY sucky thing is that after I got over the pox is that I caught strep throat.
I believe the reasoning was (before the vaccine) was they’re going to catch it, hopefully they’ll catch it before they start kindergarten. When my kids (now 17 and 19) came down with it my friends with children at the same age wanted to expose their kids to it.
My kid got chicken pox in the Irish Republic on a visit from the Caribbean aged around 5. She’d had whatever vaccinations the UK and the Caribbean give you. I think that’s MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and polio. My cousin and her baby were expected over - I thought of telling them not to come, my mum said they should come and let the baby catch it. The cousin decided not to come over - then changed her mind - the baby had already got it.
I’m confused. I was born in 1969. I was vaccinated (I have that round scar to prove it).
I’ve also had AWFUL cases of both mumps (I remember my neck/jaw being so swelled out, that the poor lady that recently had the face transplant? That’s how huge the the bottom of my face was.) and chickenpox (I wore socks on my hands, have a few facial scars: I had it between my fingers, toes and on my tiny little girly bits (I was about in the three to five range. I had it so bad that I doubt it will recur.))
So, how am I both vaccinated and having it?
The SO’s exwife never got chickenpox as a child, but got it at 40. She’s not unhealthy and she was very sick. She got it from the kids when they got it.
That vaccine was for smallpox, which has more or less been eradicated from the population. The vaccination scar for it is pretty distinctive because of the method of inoculation - lots of little needle pricks to work it into the skin, IIRC. Chickenpox’s vaccine was only approved in the US a little over a decade ago.
That’s smallpox.
The chickenpox vaccine wasn’t available until the 1990s in the US.
If the vaccine doesn’t provide lifelong immunity, wouldn’t it be better to somehow ensure that you catch this as a child? Why would you get the vac?
Nor is it available in Norway. When Older Son was 6 1/2, and had been exposed to chicken pox four or five times without catching it, the thought of upping the ante next time it came to town was very seriously in my mind. I didn’t want him to get all the way to adolescence without being exposed, and then get a horrible case. That was taken out of my hands when he suddenly asked one day, “What are these spots on my tummy? They itch!” and hey presto, chicken pox. Never did figure out where he caught them from, but since they turned up a few days after a big family Christmas party, he handed them on to all his cousins who hadn’t yet been infected…
Now Younger Son is 9. He had a mild case at the same time as his brother, when he was still a baby and still breastfeeding. We’re not sure if he has full immunity or not, and if the vaccine becomes available in Norway any time soon I’ll be having a good chat with our GP.
Only things I was vaccinated for back in the 60s was smallpox polio and tested for tuburculosis. I managed to have chicken pox, rubella, rubeola, scarlet fever and pertussus all by my self [well me, brother and cousins as plague parties.] I got mumps as an adult [I had been babysitting a friends son and he was a bit fussy because of the mumps. I found out when talking to my mom a few days later that I never had the mumps growing up, so I had my own little plague party. Luckily it was a fairly mild case. :rolleyes: ]
I regularly get the overseas package of vaccinations frm the Navy so I am good against a bunch of stuff including the black plague. so if I fall into a time machine and get sent back to the 1300s I’m good 
When I asked this of my pediatrician, she said it was because they can get parents to bring *babies *in for well-care checkups and vaccinations, but it’s much harder to get parents to bring *teenagers *in for well-care checkups and vaccinations. Same reason they give hepatitis vaccines to newborns when hepatitis is mostly spread by IV drug abuse and sexual intercourse.
I pointed out to her that kids in our state are required to have a physical before entering 5th grade, and she agreed to hold off on both the hepatitis and chicken pox until then. Hepatitis because my daughter is terribly unlikely to be a preschool drug abuser and chicken pox so she has a chance to acquire natural immunity, which is a much stronger immunity and is almost always lifelong.
As suggested above, though, it’s been difficult to find another kid with chicken pox to expose her to. She’s 4 and hasn’t caught it yet.
They’re only just now learning in real life what the duration of the varicella vaccine actually is, remember. When it came out, they said it was “most likely” lifelong, but now the teenagers they first gave it to in the mid-90s are showing up with the disease, so they know better. Boosters are being investigated. Because it was still uncertain 5 years ago, I thought it illogical to vaccinate a kid, who is very unlikely (but not impossibly so, I understand) to experience life-threatening complications, only to have the vaccine possibly wear off later in life, when catching the virus very often leads to severe complications. I’m both proud to have been vindicated and a little sad for all the men who are now facing the possibility of sterility because of catching it later in life despite their vaccines.
I’m not anti-vax, I’m pro-science, and that includes a logical and unemotional assessment of risk v reward.
The main downside of “natural” immunity when it comes to chickenpox is that if you catch the actual virus, it can go dormant in your nerve cells and reappear much later in life as shingles, which is really very painful. The vaccine avoids this.
True on an individual level as far as we know. But no one who’s been vaccinated is old enough to know yet, especially know that we know they may be getting the virus later anyway. And on a society wide level, the vaccine is indirectly *causing *shingles.
Chicken pox vaccine associated with shingle epidemic.
And please don’t scarequote natural. I’m not using it in a hippy-dippy way, but in the way I was taught to by my Microbiology teacher. Getting an illness gives one naturally acquired active immunity. Getting a vaccine gives one artificially acquired active immunity. No judgement involved.
If chickenpox vaccine causes shingles, what’s in the shingles vaccine they’re doling out at Safeway? Ain’t it the same virus just manifesting differently?
The shingles vaccine at Safeway is the same varicella vaccine they give to children. The immune response is different in adults, though, and it’s unknown whether or not the shingles vaccine will actually work well for most of the adult population. In most cases, vaccines aren’t as effective in adults as they are in children.
Shingles vaccination is an attempt to stave off the shingles epidemic we’re seeing because adults with latent varicella infections are no longer “boosted” by being exposed to children with chicken pox (those children having been vaccinated against it.) The chicken pox vaccine doesn’t cause shingles directly, rather having chicken pox free children is causing adults to come down with symptomatic shingles instead of asymptomatically reinforcing their immune response against the virus.
That’s easy to say, but I got it in 7th grade, and it was awful. My baby brother got just a few little marks, and he’s never had it again. Younger is WAY better when it comes to chicken pox.
Not ever getting it would be best of all, of course.
I’ve had a bone marrow transplant due to cancer. Because of that I had to get all my vaccinations redone starting a year ago. My doctor didn’t give me the chicken pox vaccination. According to him the long term effects are still being studied and he considered it too risky to give to someone with a delicate immune system like a marrow transplant patient.
I’m not really sure what I’d have to do if I came down with chicken pox. I had them as a child, but with the transplant I lost the bone marrow that had the immunity, and apparently, immunities down transfer from the old host either. I have had shingles. I’m currently taking Valtrex which suppresses them, I believe. The doctor seems confident though that whenever my counts go up enough, I should be able to stop taking Valtrex and my new immune system should keep the shingles under control.
Hmm, think I lost the point of my post. I justed wanted to mention this to point out that the chicken pox vaccine isn’t 100% finished and tested yet.
People have been getting kids together to get childhood diseases over with for a long time.
I agree with WhyNot about the chickenpox vaccine—my oldest had it done and I’m kind of sorry now that it’s turning out not to work so well. If I knew someone with chicken pox, I’d give serious thought to exposing my kids to it–I don’t want them getting it as adults. I’m not sure that childhood chickenpox is a serious enough disease to justify mass vaccinations, if the price is a lot of older people with serious cases of chickenpox and shingles.