Chicken Pox Parties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in public health. Most adults who get shingles had chicken pox as a child. There are a whole host of reasons for that. Having chicken pox will not prevent shingles. Neither will a vaccine.

What about hives?

What about them? I'm sorry, I'm unclear about what you mean.

sorry -

But aren't hives similar to shingles? Every so often I get a case that I can't get rid of, and there are no known causes. I've been through allergy testing, doctors' visits, etc. nothing

related to Chicken Pox?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in public health. Most adults who get shingles had chicken pox as a child. There are a whole host of reasons for that. Having chicken pox will not prevent shingles. Neither will a vaccine.

What about hives?

What about them? I'm sorry, I'm unclear about what you mean.

sorry -

But aren't hives similar to shingles? Every so often I get a case that I can't get rid of, and there are no known causes. I've been through allergy testing, doctors' visits, etc. nothing

related to Chicken Pox?

As far as I know, there's no relationship between hives and shingles/varicella/chicken pox. Shingles is a very different animal than hives, and very painful. Many people get hives with no identifiable cause, so it's quite common. Sometimes they are associated with a viral infection, but the cause is often unclear. Some people find they get hives under stress, too, so that's a possibility. But no relationship to chicken pox as far as I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in public health. Most adults who get shingles had chicken pox as a child. There are a whole host of reasons for that. Having chicken pox will not prevent shingles. Neither will a vaccine.

What about hives?

What about them? I'm sorry, I'm unclear about what you mean.

sorry -

But aren't hives similar to shingles? Every so often I get a case that I can't get rid of, and there are no known causes. I've been through allergy testing, doctors' visits, etc. nothing

related to Chicken Pox?

As far as I know, there's no relationship between hives and shingles/varicella/chicken pox. Shingles is a very different animal than hives, and very painful. Many people get hives with no identifiable cause, so it's quite common. Sometimes they are associated with a viral infection, but the cause is often unclear. Some people find they get hives under stress, too, so that's a possibility. But no relationship to chicken pox as far as I know.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kind of off topic -- To the 14:07 poster who seems very knowledgable...my younger brother contracted chicken pox as a kid and he gave it to my older sister and older brother. I never got it. I show no antibodies to it either. Doctors can't explain it. Any idea?

Hi there, this is 14:07 -- I wish I knew the answer but I don't!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

t's a well-known medical fact that exposure to the varicella vaccine boosts immunity and helps prevent shingles.

Correction: exposure to the wild varicella virus.

CDC says the vaccine is superior to exposure to chickenpox for future protection against shingles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article is from a pediatrician (and one of its points is: 1 in 1,000 who contract chicken pox will develop complications such as severe pneumonia or a brain infection called encephalitis, and about 50 will die.)

http://www.babycenter.com/404_isnt-my-child-better-off-getting-chicken-pox-than-getting-th_11455.bc

Good god, lady, this is wildly inaccurate! The CDC estimates that the 4 million annual cases result in 11,000 hospitalizations and between 40-100 deaths every year. So, to repeat, that's, at most, 100 per 4,000,000 and not 50 out of 1000!!! (or 1 out of 20 as the math would shake out). Please, can we refrain from pulling statistics out of our asses on this forum?

Also, of those children who DO die from chicken pox complications, some occur after a caregiver has treated the child with aspirin, which is inappropriate for chicken pox because of the Reye's syndrome risk.

I'm not telling anyone to stay away from the vaccine, that's a personal choice each family has to make. But those on this board trying to make chicken pox out to be some kind of scary killer disease are, frankly, off their chairs. Chicken pox can be MISERABLE for some kids. But it's very very very rarely fatal. Risk of vaccine injury is also probably on the rare side. So each person should weigh the cost benefit for herself. But be realistic about the risks on each side, folks. And don't take my word for it on vaccines. Look up the disease on the mayo clinic's website. Then decide for yourself whether or not you want to vaccinate your child.

[Anonymous]

PP, it's pretty clear that she was only talking about 50 total deaths, not 50 out of 1,000. Otherwise, she would be claiming there are more deaths than complications, an absurd statement unless of course you do not consider death to be a complication.

No need to fly off the handle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, it's pretty clear that she was only talking about 50 total deaths, not 50 out of 1,000. Otherwise, she would be claiming there are more deaths than complications, an absurd statement unless of course you do not consider death to be a complication.

No need to fly off the handle.

Well, when you post something that's unclear someone clears it up for you. I'm not sure exactly how 50 is greater than 1000, by the way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, it's pretty clear that she was only talking about 50 total deaths, not 50 out of 1,000. Otherwise, she would be claiming there are more deaths than complications, an absurd statement unless of course you do not consider death to be a complication.

No need to fly off the handle.

Well, when you post something that's unclear someone clears it up for you. I'm not sure exactly how 50 is greater than 1000, by the way.

You still don't get it. I'm sure it will come to you by morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A friend's daughter was recently invited to a 'chicken pox party' where the infected 'host' was encouraged to share lollipop treats with the other young guests in the hopes of infecting them too. Am I alone in finding this an odd practice? Are such parties more common than I think? And what are the advantages of deliberately infecting your child with chicken pox?

Since when can you spread chicken pox via lollipops (saliva)? I thought it was physical skin contact with an open pox (with pus oozing out)?

[Anonymous]

Frankly, I think this borders on child abuse....

[Anonymous]

I've had both chicken pox (as a baby -- I've still got the scars on my face to prove it) and shingles -- in my 20s. At least in my case, wild chicken pox did not protect me from shingles. I did not give the vaccine to my kids, but none has gotten chicken pox. If they have not gotten it by the time they are adults, then they can decide whether they'd like to get the cp vaccine. DH is like the PPs who were exposed but never got it as a child. As a precaution, he got the cp vaccine as an adult.

My pediatrician told me that the cp vaccine was primarily for parents so they wouldn't have to miss work to stay home with their sick kids. I thought that was a stupid reason to give a kid a vaccine that may wear off in 10 years, so I declined.

[Anonymous]

My son got the chicken pox when he was 9 months old. It WAS awful, until I gave him some Benadryl, and then he was pretty mucj OK. Without the Benadryl to help him deal with the itching, it would have been really hard. He was so young, he didnt't even KNOW how to scratch! He was sick for about a week, and I had to keep him home.

The day before he came down with his first spots, he had attended a play group with about 8 other babies. I had to email all their moms and tell them that their kids had been exposed to the chicken pox. Then THEY had to decide what to do -- assuming an incubation period of about 1 week, they had to try to stay away from otehr babies for the few days before the spots would occur, because that was supposedly a very infectious period. It was a big royal pain for those moms, one even cancelled her kids first birthday party. (None of the babies got chicken pox after all.)

I think the rationale for the pox parties back in the 70s was, "We know our kids will get this disease anyhow, let's schedule the week+ at home when it is convenient to us." That way, you didn't have a kid coming down with chicken pox just before a long awaited family vacation. Might a well have the whole kindergarten class out with it around the same time, and be done with it.

It's essentially the same basic reasoning as why people get the vaccine now. It's a pain to have to stay home with a sick kid, suddenly, for a whole week to 10 days.

[Anonymous]

Regarding chicken pox exposure as a kid and no antibodies...I tried the vaccine and I still did not build antibodies. The doctor gave up on me saying I am probably too old to build immunity at this point (38 years). I'm not thrilled with this as I want to get pregnant again and don't like the risk. But, c'est la vie.

Also, I think the last poster made a great point about cp parties in the 70's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had both chicken pox (as a baby -- I've still got the scars on my face to prove it) and shingles -- in my 20s. At least in my case, wild chicken pox did not protect me from shingles. I did not give the vaccine to my kids, but none has gotten chicken pox. If they have not gotten it by the time they are adults, then they can decide whether they'd like to get the cp vaccine. DH is like the PPs who were exposed but never got it as a child. As a precaution, he got the cp vaccine as an adult.

My pediatrician told me that the cp vaccine was primarily for parents so they wouldn't have to miss work to stay home with their sick kids. I thought that was a stupid reason to give a kid a vaccine that may wear off in 10 years, so I declined.

But what are you going to do about school? The chicken pox vaccine is now mandatory.