Is chix pox more dangerous today than 30 years ago? - Page 2

[momto l&a]

Well, maybe CP is more dangerous today just because people have forgotten how to treat and care for a person who has it.

I mean it used to be parents just cared for the kids at home and now we haul them off to the dr to have a bunch of meds prescribed which just IMO gooks up our body in its fighting and healing.

[alegna]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

Well, maybe CP is more dangerous today just because people have forgotten how to treat and care for a person who has it.

I mean it used to be parents just cared for the kids at home and now we haul them off to the dr to have a bunch of meds prescribed which just IMO gooks up our body in its fighting and healing.

As a culture we seem to have forgotten basic nursing care.

-Angela

[rhiandmoi]

The ped was probably talking about the risk of Varicella pneumonia which is a rarish complication, usually seen in older teens/young adults vs young children - although if you can't get your child exposed as a young child that increases their chance of getting a wild strain as a teen or young adult. Another life threatening complication is Varicella encephalitis. The virus can also damage the nerves. In healthy children the mortality rate was about 2 in 100,000 cases, but all the numbers I've found count pre-vax. I don't know what the subset of vax vs. non-vax mortality might be.

[Deborah]

part of the reasoning is this:

some kids will have bad cases and nasty complications

the vaccine will reduce the total number of cases and complications

is there any reason not to save children from being sick and possibly very sick and maybe even dead?

With the unspoken faith (and somewhat unproven, too) that vaccine complications causing sickness, etc., are very, very rare

That even if children who are vaxed get the disease, they'll have milder cases (sometimes yes, sometimes no)

that there are no unexpected results from mass vaccination which could screw up people's health and life--like children coming down with shingles (?!) and increased shingles cases in the middle-aged and elderly

but what do we know?

[Tari Mithrandir]

I had chickenpox just before I turned one, and again at age 6.... I don't remember it being bad for myself, just lots of oatmeal baths and I think calamine lotion O_o
My brother got it in his mouth and throat though (big white blistery sores) and had to be hospitalized. He was still fine though :P
I doubt that the rumors of cp being more dangerous now are true (and certainly hope not!).

[JaneS]

I have not seen anything justifying this opinion... however, I will say that this generation of children and their immune systems are very very different than 30 years ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a valid study that showed this as today's children have hugely exponential growth in every other serious area such as asthma, allergies, autism and autoimmune issues.

I would take this opinion seriously and then do something to improve their child's immune system and nutrition, not choose to vaccinate... a false savior which will add one more heavy log to the fire.