• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Chicken Pox Parties

BPSCG said:
But vaccinating children for chicken pox shouldn't affect the number of adults who die from it. Why the precipitate drop in deaths?
Click to expand...

Who said children were the only ones being given the vaccine?
 
BPSCG said:
But vaccinating children for chicken pox shouldn't affect the number of adults who die from it. Why the precipitate drop in deaths?
Click to expand...
It could. If more children are vaccinated, presumably fewer will get sick, and therefore fewer adults will be exposed to the virus.
 
BPSCG said:
...snip...

The good news is, once you've had shingles, you're done with it for life. Or so I'm told.

Hey, maybe those moms should have shingles parties, too.
Click to expand...

I really don’t want to do this to you ( I also got chicken pox as an adult and I've also had shingles so I do know how much you’ll be wanting to hold on to your delusions… ;) ) but... you can get it time and time again:

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/he.asp?articleID=335&LinkID=2604

However it looks like you don’t need to worry there is a proven 100% effective treatment, 100% organic natural cure: http://www.forces-of-nature.org/shingles/shingles+treatment+herpes+zoster+remedy.htm

(That looks like complete hogwash to me but perhaps one of you clever folk can confirm the wonder treatment?)
 
Darat said:
I really don’t want to do this to you ( I also got chicken pox as an adult and I've also had shingles so I do know how much you’ll be wanting to hold on to your delusions… ;) ) but... you can get it time and time again:
Click to expand...
Oh joy oh rapture.
(That looks like complete hogwash to me but perhaps one of you clever folk can confirm the wonder treatment?)
Click to expand...
I couldn't find the word "homeopathic" in there, but I agree, the thing reminded me of this:
adaffy.gif
 
Aren't shingles and chickenpox caused by the same virus?

All in all, the only concern I would have with the vaccine in this case is length of efficacy. I dislike the idea that my son's vaccine might wear off as an adult, exposing him to a virus which is often much more serious to those outside of childhood. A booster is fine, but I'm well aware exactly how much I make it out to the doctor, especially with immunization records in hand, and I don't know if I trust him to so in the future.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer by any stretch of the imagination. I say "Load him up!" whenever we take my kid to the Doc for shots. I just haven't yet done the research to reassure myself on this one. Heck, the boy has probably already had it and I just haven't noticed it on his record, making this whole post a moot point.
 
Lisa Simpson said:
That's news to me, since all three of my sons have been vaccinated for HepB and it's a requirement for admission to middle school.
Click to expand...

My apologies, I guessed and lost on a statement I didn't check.
 
ranson said:
Aren't shingles and chickenpox caused by the same virus?
*****SNIP******
.
Click to expand...

Indeed they are the same virus. The virus becomes dormant and can erupt to cause shingles. So even adults who had the disease as children can get shingles. The argument that getting the disease confers some sort of "lifetime" immunity is BS.

By the way, children who've not exhibited symptoms who are exposed to the smallpox can reduce the symptoms of the disease by taking acylovir. This result was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine about a year before the vaccine was approved.

One can speculate that acyclovir might be useful if taken at the earliest sign of shingles but no studies have been done to my knowledge.

IIRichard
 
I would like to know the origin of these "chicken pox parties". I've been on the phone to my mother tonight and I asked her about it and she had never heard of them. Her response was that if a kid in the neighbourhood had chicken pox when I was a kid (30 something years ago) they were quarantined for the duration, not allowed any friends or anything. (She did say they stopped at declaring the house a plague house and burning it to the ground.)

She also said she certainly never heard about them in her childhood, the only difference then was as she put it “we were less selfish then – if one kid got it we all had to have it, TB, scarlet fever, mumps, measles…”.

(Edited for words.)
 
corplinx said:
Can't the chicken pox leave scars in some cases? I know a few people who have at least one scar but usually it isn't on their face.
Click to expand...


I got chicken pox when I was about eight years old. I am currently 29 and still have a round scar by my right eye. It isn't horrible, and I kind of like it. Gives you character. Plus, one time a little kid asked me what it was. I told him I was shot in the head and the bullet is still lodged in my skull.

Kids are fun.



(Edited to keep myself from sounding like a complete idiot)
 
Now wait a minute. When did they discover that having had chickenpox isn't a near-perfect way to get lifetime immunity? I was led to understand that getting it twice was vanishingly rare. But of course my understanding is older than the vaccine. But still, it's not like there are adults getting the thing again as a result of hosting all these parties, right? Need more info. Off to the CDC, or CDCP or whatever the heck they're calling it these days.

And get those damn kids off my lawn!
 
manny said:
Now wait a minute. When did they discover that having had chickenpox isn't a near-perfect way to get lifetime immunity? I was led to understand that getting it twice was vanishingly rare. But of course my understanding is older than the vaccine. But still, it's not like there are adults getting the thing again as a result of hosting all these parties, right? Need more info. Off to the CDC, or CDCP or whatever the heck they're calling it these days.

And get those damn kids off my lawn!
Click to expand...

My eldest son had it twice, but according to our doctor the first time didn't count since the spots didn't itch. She said for it to 'count' one has to have at least a dozen spots and they have to itch. He probably had a couple dozen spots, but they didn't itch and went away. A couple years later, he got chicken pox again (this time giving it to his younger brother and cousin then she gave it to both of her parents) and he most definitely itched.
 
Darat said:
I would like to know the origin of these "chicken pox parties". I've been on the phone to my mother tonight and I asked her about it and she had never heard of them. Her response was that if a kid in the neighbourhood had chicken pox when I was a kid (30 something years ago) they were quarantined for the duration, not allowed any friends or anything. (She did say they stopped at declaring the house a plague house and burning it to the ground.)

She also said she certainly never heard about them in her childhood, the only difference then was as she put it “we were less selfish then – if one kid got it we all had to have it, TB, scarlet fever, mumps, measles…”.
Click to expand...
This article claims that it emerged out of the practice of inoculation, which has been around in the west since the 18th century.

One further complication: the perverse effect of vaccination means that a gradual increase in vaccination rates might actually increase mortality from chicken pox, since as the chance of your being exposed to an infected individual decreases, the probability that you'll come into contact with the virus later in life increases. But we'd see the same effect from ramping up intentional exposure.

The best public health policy would probably be to put in place a massive vaccination campaign to effect herd immunity, but that's not likely to occur in this age of enshrined self-interest.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Lisa Simpson
My eldest son had it twice, but according to our doctor the first time didn't count since the spots didn't itch.


Ok, that's good data. In the immortal words of Ed McMahon, "I did not know that." In fact, now I'm all paranoid on account of I had an extremely mild case; I don't recall whether I even itched. Time to call Dr. Mom.

As for more serious cases, the article cites Dr. Robert B. Shearin as saying that there is no such thing as lifetime immunity from the illness. The CDC on the other hand opines that while recurrence is possible, "(f)or most people, one infection is thought to confer lifelong immunity."

We've got some conflicting facts here.

Some more on the math of the thing. The CDC says that 90% of cases, 60% of hospitalizations and 40% of deaths from chickenpox are among children younger than 10. Combining that with the earlier stats on frequencies and severities, a child who gets chickenpox the old fashioned way has a 0.15% chance of being hospitalized and a 0.001% chance of dying.

I think I'm supposed to be against chickenpox parties on general principle, as it ties into the whole anti-vaccination wooism. But in the case of this disease so far I just can't get worked up by those statistics. I don't agree with the Dr. Shearin when he says that "(w)e only have to have one child die of chickenpox to put this into perspective."
 
manny said:
Now wait a minute. When did they discover that having had chickenpox isn't a near-perfect way to get lifetime immunity? I was led to understand that getting it twice was vanishingly rare. But of course my understanding is older than the vaccine. But still, it's not like there are adults getting the thing again as a result of hosting all these parties, right? Need more info. Off to the CDC, or CDCP or whatever the heck they're calling it these days.

And get those damn kids off my lawn!
Click to expand...

I got it twice as a kid and yet I can't win the lottery. How's that fair?
 
If anyone remembers John Fitzgerald's "Great Brain" series, this matter was a major story line. If I remember correctly they deliberately spread it among the child's siblings, but quarantined the house from others. One of the children set about obtaining the measles on purpose... his motivation eludes me at the moment...
 
gnome said:
If anyone remembers John Fitzgerald's "Great Brain" series, this matter was a major story line. If I remember correctly they deliberately spread it among the child's siblings, but quarantined the house from others. One of the children set about obtaining the measles on purpose... his motivation eludes me at the moment...
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that story when reading this thread.

The youngest (The Narrator) wants to get it first so that he can be over the disease while his older siblings still have it, so that he can enjoy the heel of mom's fresh baked bread with butter and sugar on it. He sneaks into the house of a friend who has it and gets him to breathe on his face. Of course his brother "The Great Brain" busts him.

I liked that series for some reason.
 
manny said:

Ok, that's good data. In the immortal words of Ed McMahon, "I did not know that." In fact, now I'm all paranoid on account of I had an extremely mild case; I don't recall whether I even itched. Time to call Dr. Mom.



..snip..

I think I'm supposed to be against chickenpox parties on general principle, as it ties into the whole anti-vaccination wooism. But in the case of this disease so far I just can't get worked up by those statistics. I don't agree with the Dr. Shearin when he says that "(w)e only have to have one child die of chickenpox to put this into perspective."
Click to expand...

My sister-in-law had it three times as a child, but never a severe enough case to get immunity. Then she and her husband got it as adults.

I have to agree with Dr. Shearin...one child dying from a preventable illness is one too many.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom