Health
Progress cited on the chickenpox front
■ Although the youngest children are more frequent targets for chickenpox vaccine, older kids should not be overlooked.
By Susan J. Landers — Posted May 9, 2005
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Washington -- The chickenpox vaccine made its debut just over 10 years ago, and most states have made tremendous progress in immunizing their children. Nationally, more than 86% of children between 19 and 35 months have been vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those figures represent a sizable gain from 1999, when about 58% of children had received the vaccine, said David Neumann, PhD, executive director of the National Partnership for Immunization, which hosted an April 19 teleconference to highlight those gains and push for more.
"There is still a way to go," he said. "There are 600,000 kids 19 to 35 months of age who remain unvaccinated each year."
The CDC estimates that 4 million cases of chickenpox occurred annually before the vaccine was approved, resulting in 11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths each year. In contrast, it's unusual to see a patient with chickenpox today or to get a call from a family about a patient with chickenpox, said Christopher Rizzo, MD, a Cleveland pediatrician. "We have some residents in training who have not even seen a case of chickenpox. It's remarkable," he said during the teleconference.
"But I've also seen the impact of a severe case," he added, citing instances of a 2-year-old with necrotizing fasciitis and an 8-year-old with pneumonia. "About half of all the childhood cases of necrotizing fasciitis occur in children when they have the chickenpox."
Although younger children are being targeted for the vaccine, older children who have never had the disease or been vaccinated should be included in state initiatives, as the risk of complications increases with age, Dr. Neumann said.
Major drivers behind broad coverage have been state laws and health department regulations that require vaccination before entry into day care or elementary school. While most states have such requirements for younger children, only 22 have similar requirements for middle school, a situation that Dr. Neumann would like to see change.
