Our daughter had the Chicken Pox last year. She was 17 years old at the time, and was miserable.
After she was over it, her health went totally downhill. After seeing our doctor countless times, she decided, after some bloodwork, that our daughter had arthritis. So, she made her an appointment with an RA specialist. Sure enough, she is in the beginning stages of RA. Her RA specialist says that the Chicken Pox is probably what ‘brought it out’. I don’t quite believe that, since RA is on my husband’s side of the family. Genetics was probably the REAL reason for it. But, he’s the specialist. I’m NOT.
Anyway, seeing your 17 year old daughter with Chicken Pox is heartbreaking. She itched, was achy and miserable. Not to mention all the ‘pox’ she had ALL OVER HER BODY. Miserable, I tell you! They REALLY need to eradicate that disease somehow.
Vaccine manufacture is not typically a big moneymaker for drug companies, and can in fact be a source of potential liability (look at the recent false claims that vaccines cause autism).
There are a number of new TB vaccines under study or in trials (one trial getting underway in '04 was the result of combined efforts involving the NIH and two drug companies (one of which was GlaxoSmithKline).
I got Chicken Pox as an adult in my 30’s and it was awful. I can’t recall if I’ve ever been sicker, plus I got a few permanant “pox” divot scars on my chest and forehead. It’s a nasty business. Avoid it if you can.
In response to picunurse’s statistics, I withdraw my argument. I hadn’t realized that the vaccination had been given to so many people; that is indeed a large enough sample to get a good handle on the risks of the vaccine. There’s still a possibilty of long-term drawbacks to the vaccine, as, for instance, the possibility that it would not confer lifelong immunity, so the risks of the vaccine are still not entirely known. But it’s not as potentially risky as I had thought.
Harriet the Spry, I never concluded that the vaccine was probably the greater risk. I said I didn’t know which was greater.
I went through similar concerns when my daughter was at that age. There is a thread here that covers some of the same ground.
One of the concerns had been that the vaccine would shift the disease to adults…since the booster shot would probably occur when a lot of folks are in college. Supposedly this is an age of low booster shot compliance.