while it is true you can find anicdotale evidence for just about anything, chicken pox is a life threating disease. while 52 children a year, i agree, are not a lot in the big scheme of things, this doesn’t make it easier if it ios your child who dies of it.
plus the fact these children suffer during the chicken pox. i am a pediatric office nurse, and have seen hundreds of cases of varicella. those kids are miserable!
plus parents have to lose time from work. while this is not the most important thing in my book, alot of people live paycheck to paycheck. a 10 day bout with chicken pox could cause a lot of problems
also, there is a thing called herd immunity. remember, varicella is most contagous the day before the lersion appear. do you want to be responsible for an infant, too young for the vaccine, to be exposed? and possilbly have a bad outcome?
also, if you have personal reasons for not wanting your child vaccinated, you can get an exeption.
i am all for informed consent to these vaccinations, in fact federal law requires that parents be given vaccination information sheets.
but, if i were king , every child would be vaccinated against everything .
by the way, when was your last tetanus shot? if it has been more then 10 years, look into getting another one. your kids need their parents.
Two summers ago I developed a rash, with shortness of breath and a fever, so my doctor tested me for chicken pox as well as mono, because no one knows if I’ve had it or not. So I guess it is pretty serious in young adults. They told me the results were negative for having either, but not if I’ve had chicken pox. I think I’ll ask next time I get a physical if I can be tested to solve once and for all if I’ve had it. I’d get the vacine if I find that I haven’t.
All my parents know is that when my mom was in the hospital, and I stayed with my grandparents when I was two or so, I got something. My grandmother’s doctor seems to have said it was measles, but my nurse the RN swears it was chicken pox…all I remember was being stuck in a tub with oatmeal. My parents used to let me play with little kids who had it, so maybe it was chicken pox.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their responses.
While we’ve not yet come to a decision, we now realize that there a few things to discuss.
Again, many thanks
[[No, I don’t believe the vaccine can protect you from shingles if you have already had chickenpox. But if you’ve never had chickenpox, it will prevent you from getting the virus that causes shingles later on.]]
I think even just being immunized with live virus, in this case, gives you a latent infection that can later re-emerge as shingles.
And, Sdarr2002, I agree that children should be immunized against dangerous diseases but - again - there are several bad vaccine-preventable diseases out there that are not routinely immunized against because they are rare. And chicken pox, while common (at least until now) is not usually dangerous.
I’m not totally against the vaccine - I immunized my other kid when my first kid got it and didn’t pass it on - but I believe there was a profit motive behind the marketing of this particular vaccine program. That bothers me
For what it’s worth, I remember being told that a booster was recommended every 10 years or so. On the other hand, I don’t remember who said that (probably my doctor at the time), and that may be his own opinion, rather than an actual medical community fiat.
I’m 26, and I’ve never had chicken pox. However, I got the shot about five or six years ago, and at the very least, it’s a load off my mind to know that I at least tried to do something to defend myself against it. It’s been interesting to read about the conflicting booster information; when it comes closer to that ten year thing, I’ll have to ask my doctor about it, I guess…
That’ll teach me not to look at links. Thanks. Now, I need to find a doctor. sigh We always figured that I was immune what with all the exposure I had, but it’d be nice to know for sure.
Are we sure that the chickenpox vaccine contains a live virus? Is there a doctor in the house?
You kidding? You know that you’re doubting the SDMB’s very own godess of epidemiology?
FWIW, a list of all the vaccines I can think of that contain live, attenuated virus:
[ul]
[li]Varicella (chickenpox)[/li][li]Oral polio vaccine[/li][li]Measles vaccine[/li][li]Mumps vaccine[/li][li]Rubella (german measles) vaccine[/li][/ul]
I hope JillGat doesn’t wish a pox upon you for your blasphemy.
This link from the CDC gives info about the varicella vaccine.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/srp/varicella.htm#vaccine
From a public health perspective, immunizing your child not only protects his own health, but the health of others, by increasing the number of vaccinated individuals and decreasing the number of susceptible or potentially infectious individuals. Plus actually having chickenpox is unpleasant for kids, and can be very dangerous for teens and adults. Based on that alone, I’d say go ahead and get the little guy vaccinated, to save him the trouble and itchiness later.
Any contraindications are addressed in the link; barring those, I would wholeheartedly recommend vaccination.