Page 80 - Spring2020
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Vaccination Updates


                                  CHICKENPOX VACCINES AND SHINGLES:
                             HOW THEY’RE RELATED—AND WHY IT MATTERS
                                By Kendall Nelson, Director, The Greater Good



                Because          Chickenpox was once an almost universal   Because chickenpox is generally not harm-
            chickenpox        childhood experience and a routine rite of  ful in childhood, doctors used to commonly
                              passage. Nearly every child under the age of  recommend intentionally exposing children to
             is generally  fifteen contracted the generally mild illness,  the disease. Parents held chickenpox parties,
            not harmful       experienced a full recovery after five to ten days  believing it was prudent to let their children get
          in childhood,       and gained natural immunity for life. Today,  chickenpox at a young age so they would avoid
                              however, chickenpox is much less common in  the potentially more serious complications of
          doctors used  the U.S. due to a mass varicella (chickenpox)  contracting the disease as a teenager or adult.
          to commonly         vaccination program that reaches most children.  Nowadays, many parents choose to vaccinate
                                 Chickenpox is a contagious disease caused  their children to prevent chickenpox, and others
           recommend          by infection with the varicella-zoster virus—a  are forced to vaccinate so that their children can
           intentionally  member of the herpes virus family and the same  attend public and private schools and daycare
                exposing      virus that causes shingles. Chickenpox spreads  centers. Varicella is on the list of mandatory
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             children to      through coughing and sneezing or by touching  vaccines in all fifty states.
                              or breathing in the virus particles that come
            the disease.      from chickenpox blisters. Prior to the advent  VACCINE ADVERSE EVENTS
                              of the varicella vaccine in 1995, chickenpox   Two varicella vaccines are available in
                              affected an estimated four million Americans  the U.S., both of which are live-virus vaccines
                              annually (although surveillance data were spotty  made by the pharmaceutical company Merck.
                              as only about half of all states reported any  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
                              cases at all).  Children who experienced wild  approved Varivax in 1995 for use in people one
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                              chickenpox developed a distinctive blister-like  year of age and older; Varivax is meant solely
                              rash, with blisters appearing first on the chest,  to prevent chickenpox. In 2005, the FDA also
                              back and face and then spreading over the whole  approved Merck’s ProQuad vaccine for use in
                              body. Other potential symptoms included low-  children one through twelve years of age. Pro-
                              grade fever, headache, runny nose, fatigue, loss  Quad (MMRV) combines the varicella vaccine
                              of appetite or itchiness. In most cases, chicken-  with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
                              pox resolved on its own.                 vaccine. The CDC recommends two doses of
                                 In 2000, researchers at the Centers for Dis-  varicella vaccine, with the first administered at
                              ease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated  twelve to fifteen months of age and the second
                              that the illness was responsible for an average of  administered between four and six years of age.
                              ninety deaths per year in the twenty-five years   While avoiding chickenpox may sound like
                              leading up to the vaccine’s introduction (1970-  a good idea to some, there are several things one
                              1994).  However, nearly three in ten deaths (28  should consider prior to vaccinating, including
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                              percent) were in persons with preexisting high-  the safety of the varicella vaccines. According
                              risk conditions.  Adults over fifty years of age  to the CDC’s website, rare side effects caused
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                              reportedly accounted for another 19 percent of  by the vaccines include severe rash, infections
                              deaths, but different CDC authors later observed  of the lungs or liver, meningitis, seizures, viral
                              that “an unknown but large proportion of deaths  and bacterial pneumonia and severe infection
                              attributed to varicella among individuals aged  with the chickenpox virus from the vaccine.
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                              50 years and older are likely to be herpes zoster  Data submitted to the federal government’s Vac-
                              or causes other than varicella.” 3       cine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
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