Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Mar 3rd 2009, 10:43 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 164
Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Mar 3rd 2009, 12:22 pm
#2
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,043
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Mar 3rd 2009, 1:40 pm
#3
High in the Dandenongs
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Listening to Puffing Billy
Posts: 9,183
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
I haven't had either 
Surely though if everyone has the vaccine Chicken pox will die out therefore so would shingles...but then theres always the people that don't innoculate I suppose...
Surely though if everyone has the vaccine Chicken pox will die out therefore so would shingles...but then theres always the people that don't innoculate I suppose...
Mar 3rd 2009, 1:44 pm
#4
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,043
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Not sure. i was told at school that you couldn't get shingles if you had previously had chicken pox. Hmm guess they were wrong.
Mar 3rd 2009, 1:47 pm
#5
High in the Dandenongs
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Listening to Puffing Billy
Posts: 9,183
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Ahhh, I see.
But yeah I reckon thats wrong cos I know two people who have had both too
But yeah I reckon thats wrong cos I know two people who have had both too
Mar 3rd 2009, 1:59 pm
#7
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 4,555
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Mar 3rd 2009, 2:09 pm
#8
...giving optimism a go?!
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Brisbane (leafy, hilly western suburbs)
Posts: 2,202
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
I'm another one who had chicken pox as a kid and shingles as an adult...
Not pleasant... but not a strong enough reason to opt out of a vaccination program...
Not pleasant... but not a strong enough reason to opt out of a vaccination program...
Mar 3rd 2009, 2:21 pm
#9
Lapine Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: Austin, Texas in my own little world
Posts: 21,691
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
The article is rubbish, but the facts are relevant.
The vaccine is a live vaccine and gives the child who's just received it a mild case of chicken pox - usually a subclinical case (no symptoms). The child is usually not infectious. Since the virus strain used in the vaccine is mild, it's thought that any shingles outbreak in a previously immunised person would also be mild - though there is not yet enough data on that point. Shingles occurs when the dormant virus reactivates. I have had it (aged 11!) and it's very, very painful.
Even before the vaccine, the medical community knew that shingles occurred much more often in developed countries vs the developing world, and theorised that in the crowded, less sanitary conditions of the developing world, adults would be re-exposed to the virus through more frequent exposure to infected children, and would then re-build their own immunity. The virus dormant in their bodies would be less likely to mount a successful return to active state.
Now that a vaccine is available, adults' exposure to infectious children will drop even further. But is this enough to significantly change things? Not in the developed world, I don't think. Most children with active disease in the developed world are quarantined and would only "boost" their parents' and siblings' immune systems. The vaccine is really key for those who reached adulthood without catching the virus, because if such a person then does get chicken pox, the risks of death are significant. The vaccine is a godsend for these adults because it confers immunity with fewer side effects than the "wild" virus.
We will never be rid of chicken pox so long as we can't prevent shingles from occurring, because shingles can give chicken pox to people who haven't had chicken pox!
The vaccine is a live vaccine and gives the child who's just received it a mild case of chicken pox - usually a subclinical case (no symptoms). The child is usually not infectious. Since the virus strain used in the vaccine is mild, it's thought that any shingles outbreak in a previously immunised person would also be mild - though there is not yet enough data on that point. Shingles occurs when the dormant virus reactivates. I have had it (aged 11!) and it's very, very painful.
Even before the vaccine, the medical community knew that shingles occurred much more often in developed countries vs the developing world, and theorised that in the crowded, less sanitary conditions of the developing world, adults would be re-exposed to the virus through more frequent exposure to infected children, and would then re-build their own immunity. The virus dormant in their bodies would be less likely to mount a successful return to active state.
Now that a vaccine is available, adults' exposure to infectious children will drop even further. But is this enough to significantly change things? Not in the developed world, I don't think. Most children with active disease in the developed world are quarantined and would only "boost" their parents' and siblings' immune systems. The vaccine is really key for those who reached adulthood without catching the virus, because if such a person then does get chicken pox, the risks of death are significant. The vaccine is a godsend for these adults because it confers immunity with fewer side effects than the "wild" virus.
We will never be rid of chicken pox so long as we can't prevent shingles from occurring, because shingles can give chicken pox to people who haven't had chicken pox!
Mar 3rd 2009, 6:41 pm
#10
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,821
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
My daughter has had chicken pox twice 
Em x
Em x
Mar 3rd 2009, 9:12 pm
#12
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,860
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
I had shingles not long after arriving in Australia. Apart from the actual nastiness of having the illness itself, it affected my eyes. I now have horribly unreliable unsight with very powerful glasses - which some days I need and some days I can almost do without. Seriously nasty disease to be avoided whenever possible.
Mar 3rd 2009, 11:21 pm
#13
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: north east england to south east queensland(cleveland in fact )WE WON THE CUP
Posts: 5,867
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
I had shingles not long after arriving in Australia. Apart from the actual nastiness of having the illness itself, it affected my eyes. I now have horribly unreliable unsight with very powerful glasses - which some days I need and some days I can almost do without. Seriously nasty disease to be avoided whenever possible.
Mar 3rd 2009, 11:24 pm
#14
Lapine Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: Austin, Texas in my own little world
Posts: 21,691
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
There's evidence that if you get the jab as an adult (after having had chicken pox as a child) that you will re-build your immunity and lower your chances of having shingles.
Mar 4th 2009, 12:59 am
#15
Account Closed
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,821
Re: Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles
Em x
