Chicken pox vaccination is one of my gnawing bad consciences. I live in a country where the vaccine is not offered without cost so I let my children be contagiated at low ages in daycare. Not optimal - maybe I could get the energy to search out the vaccine for my youngest child, who hasn't caught the disease yet. It is always easier when vaccines are offered for free within the frame of the ordinary vaccine program.
This is kinda crazy to read as someone who was born just as it was becoming mandatory in the US. Neither I nor any of my friends growing up ever had chicken pox—it always stuck me as “one of those old-timey diseases we don’t get anymore” when I encountered it in children’s books. Wild that it was almost universal just one generation before me.
The lack of circulating chickenpox virus could actually be a problem when it comes to shingles.
[...]
"If what Hope-Simpson said was correct, that opens the possibility that if you reduce exposures to kids with chickenpox, it might mean that kids are getting less of this exogenous [external] boosting. That might put them at greater risk for shingles, and at a younger age," says Rafael Harpaz, MD, a CDC medical epidemiologist who has been studying the shingles virus for 15 years.
At this point, I'm still worried that immunity might fade after like 50 or 60 years and we'll have a giant health crisis of old people getting chickenpox. Still, it's been a long time, and every year that passes is good news.
Any evidence for or against this worry, other than "so far, so good"?
Very informative! Many congratulations on your doctorate!
Chicken pox vaccination is one of my gnawing bad consciences. I live in a country where the vaccine is not offered without cost so I let my children be contagiated at low ages in daycare. Not optimal - maybe I could get the energy to search out the vaccine for my youngest child, who hasn't caught the disease yet. It is always easier when vaccines are offered for free within the frame of the ordinary vaccine program.
The "Under the Hood" section is incredibly important. I suspect (and hope) more substacks will start doing this.
Congrats on the phd
Thanks doc for sharing...
I was greatly impacted 👍
This is kinda crazy to read as someone who was born just as it was becoming mandatory in the US. Neither I nor any of my friends growing up ever had chicken pox—it always stuck me as “one of those old-timey diseases we don’t get anymore” when I encountered it in children’s books. Wild that it was almost universal just one generation before me.
The lack of circulating chickenpox virus could actually be a problem when it comes to shingles.
[...]
"If what Hope-Simpson said was correct, that opens the possibility that if you reduce exposures to kids with chickenpox, it might mean that kids are getting less of this exogenous [external] boosting. That might put them at greater risk for shingles, and at a younger age," says Rafael Harpaz, MD, a CDC medical epidemiologist who has been studying the shingles virus for 15 years.
https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/shingles/news/20180904/shingles-on-the-rise-among-younger-people
Congrats, Dr Dattani!
At this point, I'm still worried that immunity might fade after like 50 or 60 years and we'll have a giant health crisis of old people getting chickenpox. Still, it's been a long time, and every year that passes is good news.
Any evidence for or against this worry, other than "so far, so good"?