Tsu Dho Nimh wrote:

"One of the challenges facing public health professionals is to
educate the public and health-care providers that chickenpox is
not an entirely benign disease. There are approximately 100
deaths and 9,300 hospitalizations due to complications of
chickenpox each year. The majority of these deaths and
complications occur in previously healthy individuals, and should
be preventable by vaccination,"Dr. Jane Seward, CDC
epidemiologist.

I totally agree that chickenpox is a serious hazard - in people who
contract it as adults.

Chickenpox can be complicated by a variety of serious conditions
including skin infections which can progress to blood borne
infections, infections of the brain which may result in
disability, and serious pneumonia. In rare incidences, these
complications can progress to death.

Sounds like typical twenty-something male behavior, ignoring skin
infections, getting sick unto death before they seek help... I hope to
prevent that scenario by having my son get chickenpox when I'm around to
monitor him, not when his vaccine wears off while he's away at college.

Wendy