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#11
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
Wendy Marsden wrote:
PF Riley wrote: While I agree with you that the benefit of vaccination outweighs the risk, which society are you talking about that "requires" such? I just had a conversation with my child's preschool he's starting in the Fall. A full vaccination record is the default with any other option not mentioned as even a possibility. I'm holding off on the chicken pox vaccine (with my ped's approval) and despair of him ever catching it normally if the school gets fussy about needing the vaccine to admit him. I'm not sure what religious grounds I have when he's had all his other vaccinations. Well, how lucky do you feel? If an unidentified viral infection was killing 100 or so kids a year and putting thousands in the hospital ... how would you feel about getting the vaccine? Just because it's got a familiar name doesn't mean it's not capable of causing harm. http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/c...icken.pox.html "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. 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. A chickenpox outbreak at a daycare center in Atlanta provided CDC epidemiologists an opportunity to study the effectiveness of the vaccine. "Among children who had not been vaccinated prior to the outbreak, 88 percent of the children contracted chickenpox," said Dr. Seward. "Among those who had been vaccinated, only 14 percent developed chickenpox and in all cases the disease was mild." Tsu -- To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Jules Henri Poincaré |
#12
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
"Tsu Dho Nimh" wrote
I'm holding off on the chicken pox vaccine (with my ped's approval) and Well, how lucky do you feel? ... She has already evaluated the tradeoffs. You as might as well be lecturing her on the dangers of preschool. At preschool, the kid can have accidents, get diseases, learn bad habits, be influenced by trouble-maker kids, etc. All in all, it is much more dangerous than chickenpox. Apparently she has decided that the advantages of preschool make it worthwhile. |
#13
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
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 |
#14
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
"Wendy Marsden" wrote in message ... Tsu Dho Nimh wrote: 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. The skin infections are not usually what kills you. Mostly it is the viral pneumonia. There is no effective treatment for it. No amount of monitoring will avoid it. Then there is the cerebritis. -- CBI, MD |
#15
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
CBI wrote:
The skin infections are not usually what kills you. Mostly it is the viral pneumonia. There is no effective treatment for it. No amount of monitoring will avoid it. But you can make it worse by ignoring it and not helping yourself to get well, right? Machoing through it? Then there is the cerebritis. Got me - a brain infection? I've never heard of that complication. So, what is *your* opinion on vaccination against chicken pox in children elementary-school aged and younger? Are you thrilled to have the scourge gone? Are you worried about the potential for diminished immunity in twenty years? Do you have any personal experience with chicken pox gone terribly wrong in children? Were you happy when they made it a state law or did you feel like your hands were unfairly tied on the subject? Wendy |
#16
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
Wendy Marsden wrote:
Tsu Dho Nimh wrote: 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. The last death from chickenpox in this state was a child less than 2 years old. He got a hemolytic strep infection in the pustules and it went to septicemia in hours, death in a day. Source of the infection? His parents throats. The bacteria is a common throat inhabitant, and the pustules were an open would to invade. Tsu -- To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Jules Henri Poincaré |
#17
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 18:21:12 GMT, Wendy Marsden
wrote: Because my experience with chicken pox is that it is an inconvenient but not terrible childhood disease that is much worse if you get it as an adult, and I'm worried that the vaccine will wear off, causing the adult to get a much worse case than he would have as a child. It is likely that breakthrough infections in vaccinated adults will be mild, as they are in children. By the way, I had to have a rubella booster shot as an adult - the vaccine had worn off. It's important to know that the determination that your immunity from the vaccine had waned was probably based on your serum antibody level, which is a poor surrogate marker for actual immunity. Rechallenge you with actual rubella virus and you may have a proper, robust anamnestic protective immune response despite previously undetectable antibody levels. I also feel confident that I could adequately remove him from the company of adults who are not immune so that I would be endangering no-one else. I would not be so confident, as chickenpox is contagious for a few days before the first lesions appear, and frequently with chickenpox the parents were not aware of a recent exposure. PF |
#18
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
PF Riley wrote:
By the way, I had to have a rubella booster shot as an adult - the vaccine had worn off. It's important to know that the determination that your immunity from the vaccine had waned was probably based on your serum antibody level, which is a poor surrogate marker for actual immunity. You're right, but it was required by law in my state when I married. (Unmarried couples can skip the blood test and subsequent re-innoculation.) I even had to sign a statement saying I would use birth control for the next six months. I couldn't BELIEVE it! I also feel confident that I could adequately remove him from the company of adults who are not immune so that I would be endangering no-one else. I would not be so confident, as chickenpox is contagious for a few days before the first lesions appear, and frequently with chickenpox the parents were not aware of a recent exposure. Good point. So where do you stand on vaccinating four year olds for chickenpox? Wendy |
#19
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
Wendy Marsden wrote:
I also feel confident that I could adequately remove him from the company of adults who are not immune so that I would be endangering no-one else. Oh really? That means keeping the child isolated until he's old enough to leave home. You do realize that most childhood viral infections are contagious BEFORE the symptoms are bad enough that the infected one appear ill even to the most watchful parents. With chickenpox, the spots appear only AFTER the child has been shedding extremely infectious virus particles in saliva and nasal secretions for a few days. They might appear to have "the sniffles", but that's aboiut the extent of the symptoms. Tsu -- To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Jules Henri Poincaré |
#20
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6 week imunisation - good or bad
"Wendy Marsden" wrote in message ... CBI wrote: The skin infections are not usually what kills you. Mostly it is the viral pneumonia. There is no effective treatment for it. No amount of monitoring will avoid it. But you can make it worse by ignoring it and not helping yourself to get well, right? Machoing through it? Absolutely. Then there is the cerebritis. Got me - a brain infection? I've never heard of that complication. Yes. So, what is *your* opinion on vaccination against chicken pox in children elementary-school aged and younger? Mixed - at this point I think any concerns about poor immunity are pretty much moot since the natural disease is becomming rare in childhood. Over-all, I think things favor giving to the kids - mine have both had it and I recommend it to my patients, although not with quite as much enthusiasm as the others. Are you thrilled to have the scourge gone? Thrilled wouldn't quite be the word as it was not that much of a scourge - but yes, the less of it I see the better. Are you worried about the potential for diminished immunity in twenty years? Yes - or 80 years. Do you have any personal experience with chicken pox gone terribly wrong in children? "Terribly" - like death? No. I have seen some pretty sick kids require hospitalization. That was actually not all that uncommon. Were you happy when they made it a state law or did you feel like your hands were unfairly tied on the subject? I still don't feel my hands are unfairly tied. Like I said - I do think the markedly diminished rates of natural infection are making the "wait and see if he gets it" approach less and less likely to be fruitful and more likely to be harmful. I also think that as data comes in the fears are becoming less tenable. -- CBI, MD |
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