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Home › Articles › Health Issues › Chicken Pox

Chicken Pox

No Longer an Inevitable Rite of Passage

By Neilia Sherman

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Dr. Bernholtz cites possible side effects of the vaccine:

  • Local swelling or soreness at the injection site (one in five)
  • Fever (one in 10)
  • Rash lasting up to a month with a small risk of transmitting chicken pox from this rash (one in 20)
  • Seizures from high fevers (less than one in 1000)

Dr. Bernholtz also points out that there are long-term unknowns such as how long immunity lasts and whether or not there will be a need for booster doses of the vaccine in the future.

Routine use of the varicella vaccine for immunization against chicken pox was recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1995, yet studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 70 percent of children remain unvaccinated. Possible barriers to routine vaccination include the misconception that chicken pox is always a mild and harmless disease, worries about reactions to the live-virus vaccine and the lack of requirements for the vaccine by schools and daycare centers. Some states have already begun adding the varicella vaccine to their list of required immunizations.

Although the vaccine was approved relatively recently, it has been tested in children for over 30 years and has been given to children on a mass scale in Japan for over 10 years.

While the vaccine is only effective 70 to 90 percent of the time, it should protect your child from the worst of the illness; those who do get it will have milder symptoms. Another benefit is protection from a related disease called shingles. About 20 percent of adults who have had chicken pox get this extremely painful rash that can cause blisters on the face, chest or abdomen. It appears when the chicken pox virus reawakens and becomes active again. Adults who've been vaccinated may still contract shingles but they would have a much less severe case than those who have actually had chicken pox.


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