Chicken Pox: Should You Vaccinate?

Chicken pox is the Methuselah of human childhood illness. Medical literature has recorded its distinctive red spots since the 1500's. In the old days, parents believed it best to expose their kids to another child with chicken pox, since they learned early on that the disease was less dangerous to younger children than older children and adults. Modern parents now have the choice of immunizing their children against chicken pox, but many are not sure this is the best course.

The Chicken Pox Virus

Chicken Pox, known as varicella zoster, is a mild disease in children, rarely fatal or serious. Very few children die because of the disease or resulting complications. Chicken pox is highly contagious, spread through droplets in the air

Doctor's Advice

Some parents decide to vaccinate simply because they trust their doctor's advice. Most doctors will argue that vaccinations are safe and have cut the US infection rates by more than half. Another reason parents choose to vaccinate is purely financial. Because children are able to infect others until the sores scab over, a parent will lose about a week of work while the child recovers. In addition, the high cost of a hospital stay because of complications can financially cripple uninsured parents.

However, a lack of knowledge about this fairly new vaccine fuels a controversy. While the vaccine itself is considered safe, the immunity may not be permanent. Doctors do not know how long the vaccine's immunity lasts because it has been in use for only ten years. So far, immunity in vaccine recipients remains. Should studies show the immunity is permanent, there will be less room for controversy.

Danger to Adults

Nonimmune adults are more than twice as likely to die of chicken pox than children. The disease is contagious for up to 24 days before the telltale red spots appear. At this stage, the disease masks itself as a simple cold. The extreme contagiousness of the disease creates a strong concern for adults who may have lost the immunity they acquired through vaccine.

One could argue the vaccine has caused a sharp decrease in infections, which will result in fewer adult infections. This will reduce the need for the vaccine in adults. However, most parents prefer a sure thing when it comes to keeping their children healthy for life. When asked if it is better to encourage chicken pox in a child to provide a nearly guaranteed lifetime of immunity, many parents are answering with a resounding "yes".

Intentional Exposure

To protect their children with lifetime immunity to chicken pox, many parents are returning to the old-world method of exposing their healthy children to chicken pox infected kids. They are attending "chicken pox parties", hosted by parents of a chicken pox infected child. Healthy children are invited to gather playing video games and sharing lollipops while parents sit and chat. The hope is that the child will become infected at an age when the disease is mild and fairly harmless.

Think Twice

Some doctors consider chicken pox parties dangerous, exposing your child to various, potentially harmful diseases. Imagine how you would feel if your child came down with not only chicken pox, but also strep or encephalitis to boot.

Other doctors see no problem with these parties. They can be considered simply an extension of the tried and true method of dealing with the common childhood disease. It is logical to strengthen the immune system by exposing it to the disease, rather than shielding the body with a vaccine that may or may not offer the same lifetime immunity.

Vaccines are Safe

If you worry about vaccines because of the alleged connection between vaccines and autism in children, you should know that this correlation has been debunked. British authorities have charged Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the first doctor to report a link between autism and vaccines, with serious professional misconduct for his report. An investigation revealed that a group of parents paid Dr. Wakefield to write this paper in support of their legal action against a vaccine company. The doctor skewed his evidence and misrepresented data to report the findings the families were looking for. The medical journal who first published his paper has now disowned the article and further studies have shown no link between autism and vaccines. For these reasons, you should not worry about vaccines causing autism in your child.

Flip a Coin

Whether you decide to vaccinate your child or allow them to pick up immunity naturally may turn out to be a nonissue. As with all medical decisions, it is important to talk to your doctor and other parents for advice before making your choice. In the end, you should trust that the vaccines are very unlikely to harm your child and may prove to give them permanent immunity without the discomfort of the disease itself. Only the passage of time will show if you made the right decision.