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Chicken Pox Parties vs. Vaccination

ysabella

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ysabella
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Oct 5, 2005
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There is an existing thread on this but it's in the Politics forum, which isn't really the focus I wanted.

I keep reading of mothers wanting to have chicken pox parties. They believe that the immunity conferred by having the disease is superior to the immunity conferred by having the vaccine. I'm trying to figure out whether there's any truth to that. Most of them do say that if their child doesn't get chicken pox by a certain age, they will have them vaccinated at that time, which makes sense.

But is catching it 'wild' really going to confer better immunity than the vaccine? Neither is 100% protective, after all.
 
Oh Mother!

Why would any parent expose her child to a serious disease? Chicken pox has a low fatality rate, but it is possible that a child can develop serious complications. The vaccine is supposed to prevent the disease or mitigate the symptoms. Once you've had chicken pox (a form of the herpes virus) it remains in your system and in later years can cause an attack of shingles (herpes zoster). Shingles is no picnic either.

I was born too soon for any of the vaccines against childhood diseases and had chicken pox, measles and mumps. A classmate of mine died of pneumonia while recovering from measles. I would do anything to spare a child the misery of these so called "natural childhood ailments."
 
I have another general question on immunity, and I'm not sure where to look for it. I was trying to explain to someone how herd immunity protects and they said a vaccinated kid was just as likely to pass a disease along - be a carrier - as a non-vaccinated kid.

Isn't that wrong? But in searching, it's not something I'm finding easily - what the difference is between vaccinated and not vaccinated, when it comes to carrying a disease.
 
After gettting wild chicken pox you are not completely immune to it... the virus never really goes away. During times of stress it comes back as shingles: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/shinglesFS.htm

There is a chance that the vaccine also prevents shingles.

All three of my kids had chicken pox in 1994 (a year before the vaccine was available). My daughter was only 6 months old. It was only later that I found out how dangerous it was for babies (keep your baby AWAY from anyone talking about a chicken pox party!).

As far as the boys go... the then 6 year old was sick enough to start wetting the bed. The urine inflamed the blisters even more. The chicken pox also went through his school (he got it from his 3 year old brother who got it through his preschool).... at least one child in that elementary school ended up in Children's with the flesh-eating bacteria.
 
My husband has had chicken pox...twice. Once as a child, once again as an adult. The second time it was caught on a flight from the Middle East. I've had it once. I do know someone who had the shingles, luckily it didn't last too long. Ugh, I hope I don't get it!
 
Hold on a second....

A mother....holds a party.....because her child is sick......and she wants to give it every child she knows?!


What about this seems like a GOOD idea? I would have to be restrained!!


F'kin morons.
 
Hydrogen Cyanide said:
By the way, the vaccine is no guarantee against the actual disease. Though if a vaccinated child gets chicken pox it is much milder.
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My 2yo got the vaccine, I guess at 15mos. The chicken pox went around town a few months later, and I think he had a mild case. One day, out of the blue, he had 5 or 6 pox marks on his back. They never erupted or blistered, never seemed to itch or get inflamed like bug bites, and they went away in about 3 days. The funny thing is, I didn't know CP was going around, but I looked at his back and said to my husband, "If he had this on his front, too, I'd call it chicken pox." When I later found out CP was making the rounds, it seemed much more likely. My older kids (4 & 6), also vaccinated, didn't seem to get anything.
 
I've read, in my searching around, that if it's a dozen red dots it's not really a full-blown case of the chicken pox. 200 of them, then yes it is.

See, for these women who think it's better to catch the "wild" virus...well, there's still practically a 100% chance the kid will be exposed to it, isn't there? So a vaccine plus a mild case of it would be the best best for lifetime immunity, wouldn't it? Even though it isn't guaranteed.

Vaccinate your kid, and THEN send 'em to a chicken pox party, maybe?
 
I remember taking a picture of my oldest son with chicken pox, but it was with a film camera... and I'm not quite sure where it is right now (I'm a little behind in photo sorting, scanning and scrapbooking).

It was horrible... not just a few pox, but a body covered with thousands of pox. Peter Bowditch considers the few pox on these kids to be child abuse: http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/vaxliars/chickenpox.htm ! Trust me, compared to what my kids got, those are mild (well, except for the file photo he used later in his comment).

This is not something you want your kids to get on purpose!
 
Hell, I remember when I got Chicken Pox. Many, many itchy pustules. I still have some scares from them when I itched too much. Chicken Pox is not necessarily a benign childhood disease!
 
Hydrogen Cyanide said:
It was horrible... not just a few pox, but a body covered with thousands of pox. Peter Bowditch considers the few pox on these kids to be child abuse: http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/vaxliars/chickenpox.htm ! Trust me, compared to what my kids got, those are mild (well, except for the file photo he used later in his comment).

This is not something you want your kids to get on purpose!
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Absolutely not.
Although the number of poxes don't necessarily mean the disease is worse. I do remember when my 3 had chicken pox, all at the same time. Oldest son was covered in poxes but recovered well. Daughter only had a few big poxes but they were horrifically itchy and left deep pitted scars. Youngest son was a baby still in nappies and although we tried to leave him nappyless as much as possible, he still suffered whenever urine touched the poxes.
Fortunately all three recovered with no complications but it was still several days of utter misery for all the family.
 
ysabella said:
I have another general question on immunity, and I'm not sure where to look for it. I was trying to explain to someone how herd immunity protects and they said a vaccinated kid was just as likely to pass a disease along - be a carrier - as a non-vaccinated kid.

Isn't that wrong? But in searching, it's not something I'm finding easily - what the difference is between vaccinated and not vaccinated, when it comes to carrying a disease.
Click to expand...
Where did your contact get their information? It may well be possible but the control of the pathogen by the immune system in a vaccinated child prevents the virus/bacterium from reaching high levels which would then be less likely to infect someone else.
 
Chickenpox at 17

Vaccination in BG is mandatory, so the entire class in high school has had the shots as children. Then, we all start to turn 17, vaccine effect seems to have run out, so half the class got the chicken-pox. People born in '82 got it, those born in '83 didn't. In my case, it was mild (20-something poxes, maybe). Another guy, a bodybuilder, also had a mild case. Several other girls were much worse off.
After the initial itchiness was gone, I went to out village house and spent 4 days hiding in a cherry tree. The secret to itchiness gone- alcohol with menthol. Not drinking it:)
 
hipparchia said:
Vaccination in BG is mandatory, so the entire class in high school has had the shots as children. Then, we all start to turn 17, vaccine effect seems to have run out, so half the class got the chicken-pox. People born in '82 got it, those born in '83 didn't. In my case, it was mild (20-something poxes, maybe). Another guy, a bodybuilder, also had a mild case. Several other girls were much worse off.
After the initial itchiness was gone, I went to out village house and spent 4 days hiding in a cherry tree. The secret to itchiness gone- alcohol with menthol. Not drinking it:)
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I didn't know that there was a chicken pox vaccine in the early 80s? Was this specific to Bulgaria/Eastern Europe?
 
Capsid said:
I didn't know that there was a chicken pox vaccine in the early 80s? Was this specific to Bulgaria/Eastern Europe?
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I did hear from someone that the chicken pox was available in Italy before the US. Her doctor told her to get her son vaccinated there when she went back to visit her parents. This was about 1991.

The chicken pox vaccine was not available in the USA until 1995 (which I know very well because my kids got it the year before!).
 
I remember catching the chicken pox when I was probably 5 or 6, shortly after entering school. I don't remember the experience being all that bad, I know they were itchy and I remember being reminded many, many times not to scratch at them. However, I transmitted the disease to my younger brother (by just over 3 years). I'm afraid my memory was much more concerned with my condition at the time, but my mother claims my brother got the pox much worse than I did. She said he had them everywhere, including in his throat. :(
 
I am told that my great-grandma, when one of her children got sick with something, would put all the children in one bed together so that all of them would get over the disease at the same time. She didn't have the time for each of them to get sick individually, and reportedly, fully expected that the weaker children would die. The philosophy was "Well, anyone that weak is not meant to live anyway; might as well get it over with." She wasn't the only one following this practice, but neither did everyone at the time agree that it was a good thing to do. She had about 15 children total; I think less than half survived to adulthood. And people want those "good old days" to come back?
 
Don't forget about shingles. Chicken pox haunts us when we get older as shingles. One of our great volunteers at work is suffering a bout of it. I'm darn scared of when it is my turn.

Now that we have a chickenpox vaccine, are shingles and PHN on their way out? Although the FDA hasn't evaluated the effects of the vaccine on shingles, Krause believes that "in the long term, if you can prevent enough people from getting the wild (natural) type of chickenpox, you're likely to see a beneficial effect on the incidence of shingles and post-herpetic neuralgia.
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If the vaccine spares our children from shingles, then it's a huge big deal!!

I want to look into the latest vaccine for adults: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050602174550.htm

Of course, there are PLENTY of LIARS out there saying that the vaccine causes shingles. As if. I'd like to know how they figure that, when common sense dictates the opposites. But, anything to scare people into "alternatives" dished out by the same liars.

I hear the current chicken pox vaccine is 70% effective for lifelong immunity. I don't understand the bulgaria anecdote, maybe that was measles??

The vaccine for chickenpox was licensed for use in Canada in 1998.
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http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/med/chickenpox-varicelle_e.html

Will varicella vaccine give complete and long lasting protection? Consolidated experience for 10 years shows that about 70-80% of vaccinees will have complete protection and the remaining vaccinees will have partial protection against clinical illness. The vaccine is apparently 95% effective against severe varicella, the disease that predisposes an individual to the frequent complications of bacterial superinfection. It is not yet known however whether rarer complications to varicella, such as pneumonia encephalitis or hepatitis will be prevented. In Japan, where 20 year follow-up studies have been conducted, there is evidence for persistent immunity and at this time it appears that there is no evidence for waning post-vaccination protection.
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http://www.utoronto.ca/kids/varicela.htm
 
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