I heard that this vaccine is only effective for five years-- is this true? Also, my son was vaccinated when he was a year old and at 4 he just contracted the chicken pox. I have heard from other mothers who also had their children vaccinated and they both contracted the illness as well. They say that the vaccine is approximately 85% effective, but that seems like a misnomer to me. I am guessing that in years to come we will discover that it is much less effective than originally thought, and it would be helpful to know that there is a forum to register these "anomolies" to keep track of this. (As a side note, I read that the vaccine lessens the severity of the illness, and that no more than 5 pox should appear. Today, my son has at least 30 lesions. The other mother's I've spoken with have reported the same circumstances, and have commented that it appears as though their vaccinated children contracted a worse case than their non-vaccinated children. I find this odd. When I had the chicken pox as a kid, I got about 5 spots. That was in 1984, when there was no vaccine...)
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The varicella vaccine is a relative bargain, right?
I think it's $50 or somewhere in that range. Everything has to be weighed out with cost and effectiveness. The vaccine, both the one- and two-dose program, are cost-effective when you consider societal benefits, as well as direct medical benefits—parents staying home from work to take care of sick children.
What about the "catch-up" vaccine?
It's recommended that children who got a first dose get a second dose, at absolutely any age. When they have their next checkup, a pediatrician should be offering the second dose. A lot of states now have requirements for varicella vaccine for one dose, and some of them are now updating their state requirements to require two doses. It will take a few years, but primary-care physicians are increasingly going to be offering that dose for children as they come in for routine checks.
Should we vaccinate very young kids?
A lot of these diseases are very contagious and chickenpox is one of them. There was a very high incidence in elementary schools because kids got together at that age, at 5 or 6. As children started to congregate at preschool ages, chickenpox became more common [with that group] because of mixing and higher contact rates. That was the age group that the vaccine was recommended in first, in children 12 to 18 months.
Why don't we do it at birth?
Because it's a live viral vaccine, and antibodies the mother has from having the disease in her childhood would interfere with the vaccine's immune response. Typically we don't give live viral vaccines until 12 months or older, when maternal antibody has declined.
How many are just saying no to the vaccine?
We'll be getting our new data on that in a week. The national immunization rates are released in September every year. We'll see what the coverage was.
To avoid outbreaks, don't we need a high percentage of kids to get the vaccine?
Most states have requirements for elementary school, so we catch up a number of those 10 percent who don't have it before school. The outbreaks now are much, much smaller than in the past.
What about getting chickenpox during pregnancy?
It can cause infection of the fetus and a constellation of severe birth defects, or congenital malformations cause congenital varicella syndrome. Children [may be] born with mental retardation, small skulls and eye defects.
Parents should understand that although chickenpox is often considered to be not a severe childhood illness, there can be some serious consequences of chickenpox, including deaths and hospitalizations. Using the vaccine for 10 years now has resulted in [a] very sharp decline in the disease and its consequences.
© 2008
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