Why is chicken pox so much worse in adults?

[Karamom]

I am new to researching vaccines. I was having a discussion with dh the other day, telling him how ridiculous the chicken pox vaccine is. He came up with a really good question. Why is it so much worse when adults catch it? Why does it turn into shingles when this doesn't usually happen in children. It seems like it should be worse for the children. Does anyone know why this is? I guess its not really relevant to whether or not we will use the vaccine I would just like to have a better understanding of the disease in case I have to argue with people. TIA!

[kiara7]

This is a great question. The obvious answer is because it's a childhood disease. Children are meant to catch it, gain lifetime immunity, and get natural boosters when they are adults and their kids get it and when they are grandparents and their grandkids get it.

I'm guessing it has to do with the virus and more importantly with the child's immune response.

I'm sure someone else will have a more scientific answer for you.

[Gitti]

Originally Posted by Karamom

Why does it turn into shingles when this doesn't usually happen in children.

That is not how the cp virus works.
Anyone who ever had cp stores that virus in the nerve endings somewhere in the back of the neck. We are supposed to get natural boosters, as pp explained, though our kids and grandkids bringing it around.

If we are not exposed again for a long time, and maybe our immune system is not up to snuff, like using too much medicine, chemo, being nutritionally depleated, etc. and then we are suddenly exposed to cp in old age, we can get shingles.

But if a person NEVER had cp, they can NEVER get shingles.

It seems like it should be worse for the children.

Childhood diseases are meant for children to build a superb immune system. That is how nature has designed it. That is why childhood diseases are easiest on children. They used to be considered a 'rite of passage'. Unfortunatley by injecting kids with artificial immune building drugs, their immune system gets totally corruped.

Most childhood infections are not dangerous to kids. Not the ones we had always considered 'childhood diseases'. (I had all of them and so did dh.)

Most childhood infections are dangerous for adults especially if they have a weak immune system, which most adults have since they did not have the immune building infections and fevers. But cp is an exeption in that it is not so very severe even for grown ups.

And like I said, you can't get shingles unless you've had cp first.

One interesting fact is that since kids are injected with the cp vaccine we see more and more shingles in very young kids. So, what do you think big pharma did? Brought out a shingles vaccine!

This is a vaccine to ameliorate the damage done by another vaccine. They are messing too much with the immune system of our kids today. No wonder they are the sickest generation of kids we have ever had.