Maryland and federal health officials will converge on Takoma Park Elementary School next week to find out why at least 12 students contracted chickenpox in the past two months despite receiving vaccinations against the disease.
Of the 16 cases of chickenpox tallied so far at the Montgomery County school, all but four involved youngsters who reportedly received the vaccine before they were 3 years old.
Physicians are not required to report chickenpox to government agencies, and it isn't clear whether the number of cases logged at the school so far is accurate -- especially because some cases are so mild that parents aren't aware of them.
Officials with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use a survey to nail down the numbers and help whether the vaccine has failed in some way.
Jane Seward, acting chief of CDC's child vaccine and preventable diseases branch, said she is not alarmed by Takoma Park Elementary's outbreak.
It is possible the high percentage of cases among reportedly vaccinated children merely reflects the Maryland chickenpox vaccination rate, one of the highest in the nation, she said.
"That's what you start to see when a state achieves a high coverage rate for a vaccine," she said. In 1999, 78.5 percent of Maryland children in the target age group were vaccinated, the third-best performance of any state, she said.
Since chickenpox vaccine was licensed in 1995, its use has grown steadily, she said. Doctors never expected it to wipe out the illness; instead the vaccine is supposed to prevent chickenpox in 80 to 85 percent of those who receive it and prevent severe cases from developing in the rest, she said.
Severe cases bring hundreds of painful blisters, high fever, excruciating itchiness, possible infection caused by scratching, and decreased appetite caused by sores in the mouth.
In extreme cases, patients can develop pneumonia, brain infection or bleeding disorders, Seward said. CDC says more than 5,000 people are hospitalized and about 100 die of chickenpox nationwide each year.
Washington Post February 2, 2001; Page B08
A number of amazing statistics in here. The most obvious is that the vaccine did not appear to offer protection for many of the children who received it. Even more amazing is that the experts predicted that the more children who receive the vaccine, the more this would happen.
If a child eats properly, the likelihood of any complications from naturally acquired chickenpox is quite minimal. The natural infection is far better at providing an immune protective response.
These scientists are fooling with some potentially huge problems. Now the vaccine is not working to protect the children from chickenpox. What will happen to these kids and others as they grow older and are far more prone to developing the adult manifestation of chickenpox, herpes zoster (shingles)?
It is interesting that all of the news reports mention that the cases of chicken pox in the vaccinated children were "mild", insinuating that this is somehow preferable to a "normal" case. However, what exactly does this REALLY mean?
Well, according to the CDC's website, in people vaccinated the "cases of disease caused by the wild virus...are typically very mild, with fewer than 50 skin lesions and no fever." The fact that there is no fever caused by the chicken pox should throw up a BIG red flag to everyone. It means that the natural immune response of the body, of which fever is an important part, is being suppressed.
A good strong immune response to the varicella virus that causes chicken pox is important for several reasons. First, it is a virus that will remain in the body forever, as it lives in the nervous system even after the typical lesions are long gone. In a healthy adult who had the natural illness, this should not be a problem, as the immune system will keep the virus in check.
However, the "mild" chicken pox seen in some children given the vaccine may not provide adequate lifelong protection from complications or reactivation of the latent virus. Also, the varicella virus is a member of the Human Herpes virus family and is also known as human herpesvirus 3 (HHV3). Since other viruses in this family can cause problems, naturally acquired chicken pox may provide some protection against these other viruses as well. Herpes viruses have been implicated in causing cancer, Bell's Palsy, and Multiple Sclerosis .
"The Virus Within", an excellent book by Nicholas Regush is a pioneering investigation into the potential adverse health effects of Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV-6), and maintains that the virus may play an important role in AIDS and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Chicken pox may be severe in infants, but if the mother has had the natural disease and is breastfeeding, this should provide adequate protection from complications, although it may be prudent to have the infant monitored by a competent physician, just to be safe. I am not sure if this protection extends to mothers who were vaccinated, although I would guess that their antibody levels would be much lower and therefore they may not be able to provide as much protection. Premature infants are also at greater risk, due to lower antibody levels against the virus that are normally transferred from the mother.
In addition to infants, chicken pox can also be severe in adults, causing a higher rate of complications and deaths than in children. This highlights another big problem with the vaccine. Since it produces much lower antibody levels than the natural infection, it is likely that when vaccinated children become adults, they will be at a higher risk of these complications.
The topic of chicken pox is very apropos right now, as the incidence peaks in the late winter and spring.
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