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Is chix pox more dangerous today than 30 years ago?  

post #1 of 26
10/15/08 at 8:20pm
Thread Starter 
My friend's pediatrician said that chix pox is a much more dangerous disease today than when we were children. And that it is very risky to go the chix pox party route/natural immunity route. Something about complications that cause scarring in the lungs? I haven't been able to find anything online about this, but is there any truth here? Or is it the usual fear pushing from a pedi?
post #2 of 26
10/15/08 at 8:36pm
I'd tell your friend to specifically ask the ped for documentation of this new CP "danger".

I think it's probably a load of scaremongering BS.
post #3 of 26
10/15/08 at 8:39pm
What?!

That just sounds like scare tactics to me.
post #4 of 26
10/15/08 at 8:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redsfree View Post
Or is it the usual fear pushing from a pedi?
This.

Once "routine", common childhood illnesses have a vaccine associated with them, they become radically more "dangerous" and "serious". Interesting phenomenon, huh?
post #5 of 26
10/15/08 at 9:42pm
It could be scare mongering... but I think I remember in the Pink Book that they say that some percentage of kids get staph infections of the sores or something. So it wouldn't be chickenpox itself thats more dangerous but complications. But, isn't staph more prevalent now because of other vaccines?
post #6 of 26
10/15/08 at 9:43pm
Sounds like BS to me.
post #7 of 26
10/15/08 at 10:46pm
My former-ped actually told us that 1 in 1,000 children die from the chicken pox. Now, that is a little crazy if you ask me, and if he thinks I'm that stupid... he can @!#$%.
post #8 of 26
10/15/08 at 11:41pm
This seems to be a popular scare tactic... but I've yet to see ANY evidence of it.

-Angela
post #9 of 26
10/16/08 at 12:16pm
Agree with the others. The lung thing - if a case is so severe that the sores spread to the lungs, that can be difficult. But it is a common childhood illness and complications are so rare. This is just my guess, but I would surmise that someone with a terribly weak immune system who gets CP could have a harder time. DH got them this summer, had a bad case, but was FINE even when it was bad. It was just chicken pox. He even got them in his throat and they *could have* gone to his lungs, but they didn't and weren't even close to doing so, and that was in an adult case (which is worse than kids....more reason to get them as kids as the shot "immunity" wears off and your kids could be prone to CP as adults!).
post #10 of 26
10/16/08 at 2:05pm
While i wouldnt do the CP vax, its because I just dont think it is effective, and have seen a lot of reactions to it, but I would never get my kid sick on purpose, my cousin lost her daughter a year ago to CP a perfectly healthy 5yo, big borhter an baby brother had it too, it was a clasic case of CP she died very suddenly and unexpectedly.
post #11 of 26
10/16/08 at 2:09pm
We want to see his source.


post #12 of 26
10/16/08 at 2:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by *Louise* View Post
While i wouldnt do the CP vax, its because I just dont think it is effective, and have seen a lot of reactions to it, but I would never get my kid sick on purpose, my cousin lost her daughter a year ago to CP a perfectly healthy 5yo, big borhter an baby brother had it too, it was a clasic case of CP she died very suddenly and unexpectedly.
omg - where was that? Which state? I have not heard anything about it. Surely it was all over the news?
post #13 of 26
10/16/08 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gitti View Post
omg - where was that? Which state? I have not heard anything about it. Surely it was all over the news?
It wasn't in the US. But the medicine here is just as good. So it wasn't for lack of medical treatment
post #14 of 26
10/16/08 at 3:45pm
FWIW, my sister and I are nine years apart and we both had CP. My (much earlier) case was worse.

Quote:
Once "routine", common childhood illnesses have a vaccine associated with them, they become radically more "dangerous" and "serious". Interesting phenomenon, huh?
Exactly.
post #15 of 26
10/16/08 at 7:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kidspiration View Post
This.

Once "routine", common childhood illnesses have a vaccine associated with them, they become radically more "dangerous" and "serious". Interesting phenomenon, huh?
I read something at one point about the vacc causing cpox to mutate and that now there actually is a much harder to treat strain out there, fully caused by vaccing for cpox but that doesn't change that a more dangerous cpox might exist (but I have no refrences and no time to look so grain of salt and all that)
post #16 of 26
10/16/08 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CallMeKelly View Post
I read something at one point about the vacc causing cpox to mutate and that now there actually is a much harder to treat strain out there, fully caused by vaccing for cpox but that doesn't change that a more dangerous cpox might exist (but I have no refrences and no time to look so grain of salt and all that)
Yeah... I've heard that too... but seen NO evidence.

I think the whole thing is hogwash. Drives me batty that peds. are selling it like the truth.

-Angela
post #17 of 26
10/16/08 at 7:32pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for all the responses. I figured that it was the usual pedi scare tactics, but I thought I'd check in with y'all because you would have heard of it. It seems that if there are some dangerous cpox complications or strains out there, they are still extremely rare. No true reason to run out and get the cpox vax.

*Louise*, I am so so sorry for your cousin's loss. That is just horrible and unbelievable.
post #18 of 26
10/17/08 at 2:41pm
I don't think cp is any more dangerous - but the newer treatments for it can be. When I had cp as a kid i wasn't put on steriods and my mom never had tylenol in the house. Both of these things keep the body from detoxifying (tylenol depletes the body's supply of glutathione). If the body needs to do anything during cp - its to detoxify and excrete....complications arise when we try to surpress this. Somehow - nearly every mother has come to believe that Tylenol is the safest, most effective, cleanest drug on the planet. They force feed this drug to a sick child religiously every 4-6 hours. Sorry - going on a tangent - but I don't think cp is anymore dangerous now than it was 30 years ago.
post #19 of 26
10/17/08 at 4:34pm
Screw 30 years ago. Is CP really THAT much more dangerous now than it was 18 years ago when I had it in Kindergarten? I doubt it. There just wasn't a vax yet and so everybody got it and everybody was fine. Sure, some folks die of CP. But some folks die from the common cold, and the flu, and allergies, and a zilion other crazy wierd things too. Doesn't make them dangerous/scary/horrifiing disease that we just Must Vanquish from this Earth. Ugh.
post #20 of 26
10/17/08 at 4:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 13Sandals View Post
I don't think cp is any more dangerous - but the newer treatments for it can be. When I had cp as a kid i wasn't put on steriods and my mom never had tylenol in the house. Both of these things keep the body from detoxifying (tylenol depletes the body's supply of glutathione). If the body needs to do anything during cp - its to detoxify and excrete....complications arise when we try to surpress this. Somehow - nearly every mother has come to believe that Tylenol is the safest, most effective, cleanest drug on the planet. They force feed this drug to a sick child religiously every 4-6 hours. Sorry - going on a tangent - but I don't think cp is anymore dangerous now than it was 30 years ago.
That and reducing the fever that is detoxing your body when sick. Fevers are good
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