I grew up in the USA and like upwards of 90% of other adults my age contracted chicken pox, its pretty much a non issue and outbreaks were limited to young children.
Then I moved to Trinidad where VERY few adults have ever had chicken pox, outbreaks are treated like ebola by the public and health authorities with bunny suit brigades and interviews to find the source etc. If a patient comes in with active chicken pox or shingles to a public hospital they are either turned away or put in isolation and everyone panics(for good reason as everyone is vulnerable!) Look at this article:
I was once in someone’s house and during a conversation chicken pox came up and I said of course I had it as a child like most people my age in the USA. I have never seen such fear, they thought I was spraying varicella virus in all directions and were shocked chicken pox was widespread in the USA
So if universal chicken pox infection in childhood a USA oddity or not?
No, it’s very common in the UK too. I had it. Friends have ‘chicken pox parties’ to make their children get it. Point being - it’s a mild annoyance as a child but can be a serious adult illness, particularly for pregnant women. Maybe Trinidadians haven’t caught onto the idea of chicken pox parties ( it does ‘sound’ odd to be encouraging disease) and are therefore rightly concerned about adult infection.
I would say it’s getting there in the US, thanks to vaccination. Many new doctors haven’t seen a case, or have only seen the really bad complicated cases where kids end up in the hospital on a ventilator - a very rare, but potential complication if the pox pop up inside the respiratory tract. So it scares them quite a bit. My own daughter’s pediatrician has only seen it once, in med school, and the kid died. She’s understandably freaked out by it, and while we haggled a bit on the vaccination schedule, varicella was one vaccine she would not budge on, due to her scary experience.
I’ve had three friends in three different states have difficulty getting a diagnosis for their kids’ chicken pox because their (young) pediatricians hadn’t seen it before. Two of them thought it was probably chicken pox after comparing the patients to pictures, but one of them was certain it was some exotic flesh eating bacteria (okay, she thought it was strep or staph) until the lab reports came back w/ chicken pox.
Not at all, I wouldn’t say it’s common either, since i haven’t heard about a case in quite a while, but when one kid gets it the other parents always try to get their kids contagiated (does that word even exist??.. No idea)
How common is the vaccine in kids in the US now? I *think[i/] my daughter may have received the vaccine when she was little (she’s 6 now) and I wish they hadn’t given it too her. My understanding is that you have to re-up it ever 7 years or so. My guess is that when she’s in her 20’s or 30’s she’ll either not be going to the doctor as often or forget to re-up it and end up with chicken pox as a 40 year old. My plan is to just let it lapse now and hope she gets in sooner rather then later. But if it’s common for all the kids to get it, the likelihood of her contracting it at school or day care is slim.
Come to think of it, if a lot of kids are getting the vaccine now, I’m guessing a lot of them are going to forget to get the booster in their 20’s or 30’s and I’m predicting a big problem with it then. Personally, chicken pox when you’re a kid typically isn’t that big of a deal considering the lifelong immunity and not having to worry about getting it as an adult. I never understood why we needed a vaccine for it.
Hallgirls both had the chickenpox when they were little. Fast forward to when Hallboy was born (8 years after Hallgirl 2), and he gets the chickenpox vaccination. Matter of fact, his school nurse was freaking out because he was due for an update on his chicken pox vaccination and it was overdue. (He’s a graduating Senior this year.) So, we had to go to the drs. and get his immunizations updated. (Also got a couple more done, so I guess he wasn’t as updated on his immunizations as I thought he was.)
Point is that he will most likely never have it–unless his immunity from the shots runs out.
I wonder how “had the chicken pox as a kid” and “had the immunization shot for it” compare when it comes to shingles (same virus)? Will the “had CP” person be more or less likely to get shingles as the “immunization” person? Or does it matter?
You mean besides the chance of death, damage to the eyes, risk of stroke, serious threat to pregnant women who aren’t immune (besides our native population, we do get tourists and immigrants here who haven’t been exposed), etc.?
That would be the fact that about a third of those who’ve contracted chickenpox will get shingles when the varicella virus comes out of hiding in their immune system. This can cause weeks of burning pain - in 20% of those who contract shingles, it can last for months, years, or for life. If it reactivates around the eye, you could have permanent vision damage or loss. Around the area of the ear, it could lead to hearing damage/loss and/or dizziness.
phall0106: To the best of my understanding, the only way to contract shingles is to have had chickenpox at some point in your life. At the end of the chickenpox infection, the virus goes into hiding in your nervous system, where your immune system can’t touch it, and lies dormant for decades.
It is believed that people who have had the chickenpox vaccination but never actual chickenpox will NEVER have shingles.
So the vaccination not only protects against chickenpox, it eliminates the chance of another disease down the line. While shingles is usually associated with middle age or later I’ve personally known two people who had shingles in their 20’s.
While it is usually not serious as a child it can be, and shingles as an adult is serious, serious pain if nothing else, and can result in permanent damage.
What percentage of kids have those issues when they get chicken pox? As for tourists and immigrants. Perhaps they should vaccinate for it before coming to our country. I know many people from the US vaccinate before going abroad.
I hadn’t thought about the shingles thing. I’ll have to give that some consideration. It’ll still be interesting to see what happens over then next 30-40 years or so as we wind up with vaccinated kids growing up and letting the vaccination lapse. I’m thinking it’s going either going to stop being a kid’s disease and/or there’s going to be a huge push for adults to start getting the shot or keep up with it if they’ve already had it.
I forgot to say I know that now with vaccines it is probably getting rare in the USA too, but at least those too old to have received the vaccine are mostly immune which is not the case in Trinidad where everyone from granny to expectant moms have never been vaccinated or infected.
People getting shingles cause small outbreaks all the time too(most of the people with shingles had chicken pox abroad earlier in life).
Yes, it’s treated as serious; it’s a compulsory vaccine. I have never heard of “chicken pox parties” here; if any such were found, the Ministry of Health would be on those parents like several tons of bricks. We’re supposed to get vaccinations, not purposeful uncontrolled infections!
My mother has shingles, as do several of her friends; Dad only got an attack once but it made him apologize fitfully for all the times Mom had had it and he’d thought she was exaggerating. It’s not fun.
Before the vaccine was available the thinking was that(at least in the USA) the disease is so widespread you’re likely to catch it at some point, best to catch it as a child rather than create a dangerous situation like catching it while pregnant later on.(it is also more severe the older you are generally).
Here it’s considered a typical childhood illness. I’ve never heard of people holding “parties”, but it’s not something people get too worried about. I don’t think it’s part of the vaccine program.
The vaccine came out when I was 6 or 7 (US). I’d already had chickenpox, as had most of my friends. But among people even a couple of years younger, the rates seem to be significantly lower. I must have been right on the bubble.
Ireland. Standard childhood illness, not seen as a specially big deal. The vaccine’s only recently become available, as far as I know; it’s not compulsory, or even particularly recommended.
Yes, I’m 35 and from the US, and when I was a kid, the “chicken pox vaccine” was available (I think) but only given to children who were immune-compromised in some way for the first couple of years it was out–that would have been about 1993, I think? Chicken pox was kind of a rite of passage when I was a kid, along with losing your two front teeth. I don’t think I remember anyone organizing any chicken pox parties, though. Seems like nearly everyone had already had it by the time they were 8 or 10; I remember one particularly old hold-out among my friends got it when she was 12 and it was a pretty serious case.
The vaccine’s compulsory here now, though, and has been since 1995. All of my kids have had it. Indeed, they had to have a second dose of it shortly before starting school, at around age 5.
I contracted chicken pox while at college in 1987. I showed up at the infirmary wondering why acne had apparently broken out overnight.
The nurse said, “No, that’s chicken pox. You’re staying here until you’re no longer contagious.”
“Fine,” I said, “I’ll just go back to my dorm for a change of clothes and some books.”
“Not a chance,” they said, “You can’t leave.”
So I had to call a friend, throw my keys out of the window to him and ask him to collect some clothes and textbooks. The university medical staff didn’t want the risk of an infection spreading around the dormitories. So, yes, it’s treated as a serious, highly contagious disease.
I was never vaccinated for chickenpox (born 1968 in the US), because the vaccine wasn’t released here until I was an adult. When my sister came down with shingles a year and a half ago, and Mom couldn’t remember us either being vaccinated or having the disease as children, I decided to look into it. My doctor did a blood test, and what do you know? I had no antibodies! I went and got my 1st shot a few weeks ago, and am due for the second now.
Ha. I was diagnosed by a little old lady in a gas station. My parents and I were on a multi-state car trip. When we were packing to leave, I was scratching at what I thought was a mosquito bite. Several hours later, and we’re standing in line to buy something-or-other and I’m standing there just squirming and scratching.
The little old lady in line with us said something to my mom about chicken pox, and said, “Pull up her shirt.” My mother did so, and sure enough, little red bumps everywhere. “Yup - she’s got herself the chickenpox.”
My kids got it in 1st grade. If there was a compulsory vaccine for it then, they would have got it. You can’t go to school if you’re vaccinations aren’t up to speed in NY. As I remember it about 80% of the kindergarten and 1st graders came down with the chicken pox eventually. This was in 1992.
I had the chicken pox when I was very small. Pre-school age. I don’t remember having it but I do remember the scar on my forehead that you can still faintly see some 40 odd years later.
My parents and I were on a multi-state car trip. When we were packing to leave, I was scratching at what I thought was a mosquito bite. Several hours later, and we’re standing in line to buy something-or-other and I’m standing there just squirming and scratching.