Chickenpox Outbreak @ NC Anti-Vax School

[Howl]

Post title pretty much says it all.  There is a big measles outbreak at a Waldorf school on Asheville, NC. 

A leader in vaccine exemption, Asheville Waldorf has NC's worst chickenpox outbreak since '95

This is the worst outbreak since the chickenpox vaccine became available. 

[Kailash]

Wait.. measles or chicken pox? I’m confused.

It’s not measles, it’s chickenpox. And the article didn’t even mention preventing shingles with the vaccine. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Your title is supposed to say chicken pox. 

I remember getting chicken pox. It wasn’t severe or anything. But it wasn’t fun at all. I had it in the summer so I didn’t miss any school. But I missed out on a lot of fun stuff. I was also a picker and a scratcher. So I had some scars on my arms from the pox that I picked at and scratched. I’m glad my kids don’t have to deal with the chicken pox.

[littlemommy]

36 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Your title is supposed to say chicken pox. 

I remember getting chicken pox. It wasn’t severe or anything. But it wasn’t fun at all. I had it in the summer so I didn’t miss any school. But I missed out on a lot of fun stuff. I was also a picker and a scratcher. So I had some scars on my arms from the pox that I picked at and scratched. I’m glad my kids don’t have to deal with the chicken pox.

I’m more glad my kids won’t have to deal with potentially getting shingles. Several family members have had it and they truly suffered with it.

[samurai_sarah]

In accordance with the information given, I have amended the title.

[ADoyle90815]

I had chickenpox when I was a baby, and my brother had it in elementary school. I was the one who had to get his class assignments when he had it so he would be mostly caught up after the 2 weeks he was out. Either way, it's nice that my niece will never have to go through that or have shingles. Several family members of mine had shingles, and as soon as I can, I'm getting that vaccine because that's worse than chickenpox.

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

I’m so sorry to hear this.  Children suffering because of BAD parental decisions.

[mango_fandango]

The chickenpox vaccine isn’t part of the standard NHS vaccine schedule. 

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccine-questions-answers/

I had chickenpox on my 2nd birthday, my brother had it when he was 3 and had to miss a week of nursery. Apparently my grandfather had shingles when I was little too. 

[grantedgrant]

Yeah, chicken pox is not included in the standard program here either.

www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency-of-sweden/communicable-disease-control/vaccinations/vaccination-programmes/

All kids seem to get it, it’s more of a ”good that we got that out of the way” thing.

My daughter was three, and her little brother caught it from her at only five months. Not supposed to be possible that early, but hey, he’s exceptional ? 

And it meant that I could take it easy when there was a massive outbreak at his day care a couple of years later.

 

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Here it has become part of the scheduled vaccinations offered by the NHS some years ago. I am happy that my daughter won't have to deal with it and my parents won't risk shingles, my grandmother  got shingles from my no Vax cousins when they had chicken pox and it was no fun at 83yo.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

6 hours ago, Kailash said:

 And the article didn’t even mention preventing shingles with the vaccine. 

It does, it's the comment under a picture.

Quote

Baby boomers should consider getting the shingles vaccine. Varicella Zoster virus causes chickenpox in children, teens and young adults and herpes zoster (shingles) in adults.

 

[mango_fandango]

Yeah, my cousin got it at six months, off his older brother who was 2 at the time. I remember my aunt and uncle had a joint 40th birthday do and six-month-old cousin was smothered in calamine lotion. 

Kinda weird how the U.K. and US are so different when it comes to the chickenpox vaccine. 

[RosyDaisy]

I had chicken pox as a little girl, and was very sick. I wish the vaccine was available. I'll never understand why this vaccine isn't part of routine vaccinations. If it prevents or reduces the severity of an illness, it should be.

[Blahblah]

Happily chickenpox is a standard, free, vax in Australia.

A friend had chickenpox as an adult and it was a miserable time for her. She has blisters in all sorts of places including in her ears and up her nose.

[meee]

Oh man. They're lucky it *wasn't* measles. Or whooping cough or something. (I'm just waiting for diphtheria to make a comeback thanks to antivaxers ? )

[SilverBeach]

3 hours ago, grantedgrant said:

All kids seem to get it, it’s more of a ”good that we got that out of the way” thing.

No, shingles hurts like hell. Not good at all since it is preventable. All kids got it when I was a child but that was over fifty years ago.

[Terrie]

The reasons the UK has for not vaccinating against chickenpox are dumb. They worry it will mean more shingles, which it might in the adults who were not vaccinated, but since we also have a vaccine for shingles, that's a dumb reason. The idea that unvaccinated adults might be vulnerable as adults because they won't get it naturally is dumb. By that logic, you shouldn't vaccinate at all. Every reason they give? Dumb.

Yes, chickenpox is generally mild in children. But when it's not? It's really, really bad. I look forward to the day the NHS gets their heads out of their asses and stops the unneeded suffering.

[Spinosaurus]

I got chickenpox when I was 6 and got very ill.  (My sister, aged 3, got it at the same time, for extra fun.)  It's already given me (a healthy adult) shingles once.

If you can, get your children vaccinated.  DO IT.

[mango_fandango]

For some reason the shingles vaccine is only available for the over 70s here. Granddad was 61 when he had it... yeah. Although you can apparently still have the vaccine if you’ve had shingles.

I don’t really get the NHS stance against the chickenpox vaccine either. I knew it wasn’t a standard vaccine over here and decided to check out why. 

[Briefly]

I had the chickenpox over my 5th birthday.  My big memory is of sitting in Dad's lap and eating most the his soup, which became a family legend but now as an adult I think he was just trying to get me to eat and that was how he did it - pretend that I was eating his.

My daughter had it when she was about a year and a half, that was the year I was able to stay home with her.  She had not been around any kids immediately before she got it so we don't know were she got it but we didn't realize she was actually coming down with something. We had spent the weekend at the lake with the local in-laws and we thought she was just very tired the next day, but she woke up with the rash the day after that.  It was several days of aveeno baths and calamine lotion.  The vaccine did not come out until a year or so later.  She was sick for several days and if it had been available, I would probably have gotten it for her.

I am no anti-vax at all!  I get really mad at the idea that people don't vaccinate their children.  The reasons seem to change on a frequent basis. Our daughter is named after my aunt who had polio as a teenager and was never able to live a completely independent life.  Mr. Briefly's grandfather (which is where her middle name comes from) had polio when he was either a teenager or right before his teen years, and he was never able to use one of his arms.  My boss's late sister was a healthy, active, very athletic, gifted dancer one day and then the next day she had to be carried into the hospital in her father's arms because they thought she was dead - she wasn't but she had severe physical limitations for the rest of her life and she died fairly young, probably from post-polio syndrome.

I have heard of a few cases where people who did get vaccinated as children were exposed to illnesses later on in life and the vaccines were so far in the past that they weren't totally protected any longer, and they came down with the illness.  Usually polio, but possibly other diseases.

[Howl]

22 hours ago, ADoyle90815 said:

Several family members of mine had shingles, and as soon as I can, I'm getting that vaccine because that's worse than chickenpox.

Sorry for the epic fail on the title.  I mentally processed "measles" since most of these epidemics are measles. 

I got the original shingles vaccine when I turned 65.  The Shingrix vaccine became available and I finished my 2nd shot about two months ago.  It's two shots, from 2 to 6 months apart.

Hubs will get his 2nd Shingrix shot next week.  Its effectiveness in preventing shingles is above 90%, incredibly more effective than the original shingles vaccine, which was around 26% effective.   I've heard shingles is incredibly, horribly painful.  

[Howl]

 

[nvmbr02]

There is a chickenpox outbreak at a local school here as well. The chicken pox vaccine is required to go to public school here and they make it pretty difficult to get a waiver, but I have no idea if the kids here were vaccinated or not. I am guessing they weren't or at least most were not. 

Quiet honestly, the chickenpox vaccine was one I hesitated to give. Not because I am anti vaccines in any way, but at the time my children were little there was a lot of talk about the vaccine maybe wearing off and more adults getting chickenpox especially women who may be exposed during pregnancy.  I was older than my siblings when I had the chickenpox and I had a very bad case whereas my siblings barely had an issue. That being said we did the vaccine, and the booster as recommended by my children's doctor and I talk to my kids about continuing boosters as adults and checking for immunity as adults. 

[PennySycamore]

I'm supposed to get my shingles vaccine in January and I hope it's the Shingrix one.  I need to convince my husband to get his as well.   

[Walking Cat Bed]

On 11/18/2018 at 3:06 AM, SilverBeach said:

No, shingles hurts like hell. Not good at all since it is preventable. All kids got it when I was a child but that was over fifty years ago.

A friend of mine had shingles while pregnant with her second child. She was furious for several weeks.