Is the Chickenpox Vaccine Safe? This is what the experts say. (894 hits)
Many parents wonder if their child really needs the chickenpox vaccine. This is what the experts say. We often think of chickenpox as a harmless, if annoying, rite of childhood. And while it often is mild, the disease can also be very serious and even fatal. "Chickenpox can cause horrible, life-threatening complications," says Mary Anne Jackson, M.D., division director, infectious disease at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Disease. "I've seen previously healthy children who lost all four limbs because they had chickenpox and developed a streptococcal infection, leading to soft-tissue complications."
Before the chickenpox vaccine was put into use in the U.S. in 1995 about 11,000 people were hospitalized for chickenpox each year and about 100 to 150 died from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fortunately, since the vaccine was introduced, the death rate from the disease has dropped by 97 percent in children and adolescents.
Vaccine Background Here's the history of the vaccine: The chickenpox vaccine was first licensed in United States in 1995. At the time, it was a one-dose vaccine. In 2006, a second dose of the vaccine was added. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that children who have never had chickenpox get both doses: the first when they are between 12 and 15 months of age and the second between 4 and 6 years of age. People age 13 and older who have never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine should get two doses spaced at least 28 days apart. According to the latest numbers, close to 90 percent of American children have been vaccinated against chickenpox, says Dr. Jackson.
All vaccines (and medications, for that matter) can have side effects, but the ones reported with the chickenpox vaccine occur infrequently and are usually extremely mild. According to the CDC, the most common side effects of the chickenpox vaccine are soreness on the arm where the shot was given (which occurs in 1 out of 5 children) and a mild rash up to one month after vaccination (which occurs in 1 out of 25 people).
