Chickenpox is a disease which is contagious and easily spreads from person to person. The chickenpox vaccine is a called a live attenuated vaccine. It is created with the live, disease-producing virus after it has been modified, or weakened, in a laboratory to produce an organism that could grow and create immunity in the body without causing any illness.
This vaccine is administered by giving a injecting the fatty tissue of the body. It is recommended for all children who are younger than 13 years of age. The first dose is administered between 12 to15 months and the second dose when the child is 4-6 years. If you are 13 years or older and have never had chicken pox, then two doses are administered with a gap of 4 to 8 weeks. The vaccine is recommended to people who work in health care or day care centers, teachers, military personnel, students and people who travel around the world a lot, especially if they've never had the disease. This vaccine is not recommended to people, who have serious illnesses, a weak immune system, HIV, pregnant women and if you've received blood transfusion in the last 5 months. This vaccine has been administered to millions of people in the Untied States and around the world, and studies have shown that the vaccine is safe and serious side effects are extremely rare. For those people who have been vaccinated and complain of side effects, these are mostly just mild redness, soreness, or stiffness at the site where the shot was administered. Once the vaccine is administered, a very small percentage of people actually get the disease. If they do get chicken pox, then it's typically a milder form, and they recover very soon.
Many parents believe that the immunity derived from the disease is far better and more permanent than that from the vaccine. They don't get their children vaccinated as they believe that it is better for the child to get the disease when they are young as the infection will be less severe. However, since a safe vaccine is available, a parent needs to weigh the benefits of the infection against the risks. The child could develop a severe infection with complications. No one can predict if a child will develop a life-threatening and severe case of chickenpox. Research shows that most serious cases occur in previously healthy children. In addition, in a recent study, 7 out of 10 children mentioned that if they were given the choice, they would rather have the vaccine than the natural disease.
answered by G M