Chicken Pox Vaccine

Maybe I should be posting this in the debate section?

My neighbor called me this morning to let me know that her son, who has received the chicken pox vaccine, has chicken pox. (My oldest played with him this weekend). He caught it, presumably, from another child at his school who also received the vaccine.

Two weeks ago, I took both girls to the playground and there was a 3 yo boy there who had chicken pox (why was he at the playground???) whose mom said that he had also been vaccinated. She said there is apparently some chance of still getting the disease after being vaccinated with the benefit being a milder case.

Both my kids have had chicken pox at 9 months (youngest) and a little over 1 yr (oldest). My oldest also had the vaccine and ended up with the disease in a close enough timeframe for it to have been a side effect of the vaccine. (I loved this....the nurse practitioner at the peds office said a side effect like that is "very rare". Even it it's rare, it has to happen to someone, right?).

A week ago, I read this article on slate.com:
http://www.slate.com/id/2114797/

Maybe these cases of kids getting while immunized aren't so bad -- for the booster effect. But is this really an illness that merits multiple boosters with a relatively expensive vaccination?

[fluffhead]

We agonized over this decision for our daughter, didn't get the vaccination, and she managed to get a pretty mild case at 18 months, catching it from some friends' children on a visit to NJ.
However, I think we're gonna get it for our son for a few reasons:
1) I think the state requires it for school.
2) It's getting harder and harder to find kids from whom to catch the disease, and I don't want him growing to adolescence not having had it. We could always wait until he's like 3, but that gets to reason number
3) I've heard of such awful cases of chicken pox, where the kid is so unbelievable miserable. Do I want to take that chance, and put my kids through that? We're happy we didn't get it for our daughter - we believe she has better immunity having had the disease, but we got lucky. I don't want to have our son go through a nasty case of it.

In any case, we haven't made a final decision.

[mommax3]

I remember we agonized over this one with DS #1 (who will turn 10 next month) because it was relatively new when it was time for him to get it. We delayed it about a year, but ultimately got it, and the other two have gotten it as well. I didn't want to take the chance of one of them getting a really bad case....and I remember when my sister and I had it....neither one of us had particularly severe cases, but we were miserable (as was my mom, I'm sure!) and despite my mom's best efforts, my sister (who was about 2 at the time) has a couple of fairly deep scars on her face from her bout.

When we were worried about it, we were worried about the strength of the immunity that the vaccine would provide, but so far, we haven't had any problems.

Sally

[Rapunzel]

Oddly enough, the moms that were sitting outside while my daughters had basketball practice were discussing the fact that a little girl came to their kids' private school a few days ago with chicken pox. The little girl had evidently been vaccinated for chicken pox some time ago as the school required for admission (private school). The little girl was immediately quarantined and sent home ASAP (which is odd since the school requires all kids to have the vaccination to presumably keep their students "safe" in an incident such as this).

I had my oldest given the chicken pox vaccination and he promptly got a mild case of the illness (it was considered a "side effect" at the time - and I was informed it was "rare"). I didn't allow my twin daughters to have the vax for a very long time after my son's reaction. They were premies and had respiratory problems and I just didn't want to deal with even a mild case of chicken pox from the vaccination. I eventually had them vaccinated (and my youngest daughter as well) because of the decreasing liklihood of them being exposed in childhood to it and building that immunity prior to adolescence and adulthood when the danger from the illness increases.

It's just not as cut-and-dried an issue as vaccinating for, say, polio. Chicken pox does not have the same mortality rate as many of the other illnesses children are vaccinated against. It's not a fun disease, granted. But, I have never regarded it as a "deadly" disease - more of an annoyance.

Jennifer

[HeartRN]

My daughter got the shot...I think she had to have it for daycare. I didn't hesitate...I had a HORRIBLE case at age 15. In the throat, ears, etc....it was awful. Anything that could potentially save her the misery, all the better IMO.

[SueC]

We did it with all 3 (well, I don't know if the baby has gotten it yet but he will), I wasn't really sure initially but my dh was adament. According to my dh, if your kids actually get the chicken pox, then as adults they have a greater chance of getting shingles, which to my understanding can be quite painful or uncomfortable.

[DCJenn]

We have to get Nikolai reimmunized for everything. I need to ask the orphange staff if he's had chicken pox or not. He was also given the TB immunization which means that for ever more he'll have to have X-rays rather than the shot because he will react. Joy.

The chicken pox virus is the same one that causes shingles. Shingles can be unbearable. One vivid memory from my childhood- We had an elderly couple as our landlords when my parents first moved from DC to Pittsburgh. Mrs. Chambers and I shared the same birth date, so they became like 'extra' grandparents. Mr. Chambers found a tricycle on the curb on garbage day and fixed it up and painted it bright red for me. They were awesome. Mr. Chambers developed shingles, to the point where he was so miserable and there was nothing that anyone could do- so he killed himself by leaving the car on in the garage.

I asked my mom about it in later years and she said that he was so miserable that Mrs. Chambers suspected that he might go to that length, but she couldn't stop him. He was THAT uncomfortable.

Also, I have several very large scars from Chicken pox- none on my face but several on my head, back and one on my leg that looks like a vaccination scar it's so deep.

Jenn

[Sheherezade]

I've actually known 3 people with shingles recently. After reading this article, I'm wondering if that isn't unusual. I wonder if the incidence of shingles is increasing with the lack of "re-exposure" to infected children in our current culture. We had our kids immunized. My dad is a pediatrician and we discussed the risks/benefits. I remember being really turned off by the idea that the primary motivation for pushing the vaccine was lost revenue from parents missing work to stay home with sick kids. That just seems so wrong.

I had a bad (but not severe) case too -- pox in my throat, eyelids, etc. It was uncomfortable.
I wonder, though, if this vaccine will really help with shingles or not, especially if kids are still getting infected, albeit milder infections.

[Rapunzel]

I thought that you could get shingles if your body had been exposed to the herpes virus that is chicken pox- period. Which means I thought that exposure via the chicken pox vaccination would lend a person the same vulnerability to getting shingles in the future as much as exposure by normal methods to the illness. Is that wrong?

Jennifer

[DCJenn]

I don't remember where I heard/read/imparted from aliens...that the degree of shingles is related to the severity of the outbreak of the chicken pox as a kid.

But, for all I know I made that up.

J.