Re: Campaign 2016 - Run-HRC? Honest Injun? Gott Mitt Himmel? RyanRubioCruzCrud?
Here's something I've wondered about (I admit I just blindly follow doctor's orders without knowing much about all factors involved). The chicken pox vaccine. When I was a kid, you got chicken pox, you were itchy for a while, and you were immune for the rest of your life. Nowadays kids get the shot, they're immune throughout childhood, the immunity wanes because nobody gets the proper boosters as an adult, and they are susceptible to "shingles" (adult chicken pox) which is actually dangerous. Is this an improvement? Am I misunderstanding? Are we really trading a harmless (without complications) childhood illness for a deadly adult one? There's something here I don't understand.
So I am shooting from the hip here as I am too lazy to look everything up
On a point by point basis.
If you get chicken pox as a kid, you are immune but that does not mean that you will never get it again. It is possible, just highly unlikely. Kind of the same reason vaccines increase immunity but are not infallible.
The kids that are immune because of the vaccine have a similar immunity but not necessarily the same immunity. If you wonder why people need "boosters" of stuff, it is because immunity is not sufficient after one dose or the immunity fades. In fact, all immunity fades as we age.
With regards to shingles, it is not really "adult chickenpox" as just chickenpox. It is the same virus, which is a herpes virus. When we get chickenpox and our immune system fights it back. However, herpes viruses are notorious for hiding out. Indeed, the chickenpox virus hides out in our ganglion (collection of neural cell bodies) and strikes when our immune system is susceptible. This susceptibility can occur from another sickness, or age, or just bad chance. The shingles vaccine is trying to re-educate our immune system to keep that pesky virus in check, that is always there.
Shingles has a "dermatomal" pattern because a single dermatome is innervated by a single ganglion. Lose control of the immune response of a ganglion...bam shingles.
Shingles is, as far as I know, less dangerous than chickenpox. Shingles is much more painful, but it is not a systemic infection and does not lead to as many or serious complications such as encephalopathy.
And the last point. If I remember correctly from some of my board studying, people who have received the chicken pox vaccination (compared to having chickenpox) have a much lower rate of shingles. If anything, the chickenpox vaccination should eliminate shingles within a few generations if we have high enough vaccination rates.
