That chicken pox shot will need booster
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That chicken pox shot will need booster
KATHLEEN DOHENY
Gannett News Service
When the vaccine against chicken pox was introduced in the United States in 1995, medical experts hoped it would be a one-shot deal, with a single injection about the time of a child's first birthday, giving lifelong immunity.
Now, experts are learning that's not so. They've found that the protection from a single immunization fades over time, and that a booster shot is needed if you want your child to have the best chance at lifelong protection from chicken pox, or what doctors call varicella.
The experts reached that conclusion after examining 10 years of data and the effects of the vaccine on more than 11,000 people who got the shot during the years 1995-2004. Of those individuals, 9.5 percent experienced so-called "breakthrough disease," researchers reported last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"The breakthrough was mild," said Dr. Robert Frenck Jr., a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases.
Chicken pox, which is caused by an infection by the varicella-zoster virus, typically starts as a rash on the face that spreads. The rash begins as red bumps that become blisters. Often a child can get hundreds of blisters, which crust over and fall off the body in a week or two.
The children who suffered "breakthrough" chicken pox typically got fewer lesions, Frenck said, perhaps 20-50. Still, schools and day-care centers would not welcome them back until the sores had dried or crusted, because the disease can spread easily from person to person.
Based on those findings, experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and elsewhere are now recommending that a second booster shot be given to children between 4 and 6 years of age.
According to the CDC, all children ages 12 months through 12 years old should have two doses of the vaccine. The first dose can be given at 12-15 months of age, and the second at 4-6 years.
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