I had the best case of chicken pox as a kid. Got a bunch of red dots on my body and… that was it. Zero other symptoms. Felt fine and got two weeks off of school!
I keep wondering Shingles is looking to even that score.
I was the same way, and I’ve heard shingles is worse in those who barely had chicken pox.
Got chicken pox as an adult here. It was moderately serious, and the doctors were very happy my fever stayed out of the danger zone. But I likely have a gene helping with getting childhood diseases as an adult *.
I was exposed to it as a child, and was of the generation where you had chicken pox parties. I do remember my brother having chicken pox as a child. But, my measles vaccines were not until later - they were too new when I was an infant, and I had measles before them. Measles could kill too then, but I got them old enough it was not bad. And I wonder if this:
Might explain why. My immune system may have “forgotten” the chicken pox immune response due to the measles after. The vaccines even had to be redone as an adult (I volunteered in an ER and they require titers to verify immune standing before entering the program). Mine were lower than required, so I’ve had MMR vaccines twice! And chicken pox, twice. And measles, once.
Then I got shingles.
My daughter noticed it was likely that before I did, and I got on an antiviral within the first couple of days. I also have a high pain tolerance. So, they weren’t bad, but I had mitigating circumstances.
So if you do get shingles, get on an antiviral ASAP.
I like vaccines! I would have had three uncles, but the first one died as an infant from childhood diseases. My grandmother had been told she would not survive to adulthood too but beat the odds. How can people forget all this so quickly? I’m not that old, and this is just one family’s story. I do not understand.
* My GP at the time surmised that the percentage of native ancestry I have may help, since most of those living now were ones that survived getting all the European diseases, mostly as adults. My immune system did handle adult chicken pox better than average. Much like many Europeans have genes that helped them survive the plague. And if people stop vaccinating, and antibiotics become less effective (a different issue) then I hope I got all the immune survival genes from every branch of my family tree! I may need them to see my grandkid grow up.
I got chicken pox in my mid twenties. My wife never had it so we quickly got her the vaccine the same day I started showing symptoms. It doesn’t give full immunity immediately, but she didn’t end up catching it despite tending to me the whole time.
It was pretty rough though. I had a high fever and had difficulty breathing at one point, my wife called 911 and a bunch of fireman came and gave me oxygen.
Good grief. Maybe they are ordering their own “Freedom Blankets”.
They don’t even have to forgot. I’m too young to have experienced most of these, outside chickenpox, first hand. I understand, conceptually, what these diseases do and did. Combine that with the fact that there are still many places in the world ravaged by these diseases that lack the privilege of easily accessible vaccines, complete with data and photos.
Understanding these diseases, from the safety of your home, is incredibly easy today. The anti-vaccine crowd is not just ignorant, they’re lazy. They wait for lies to drop on their social media doorsteps and then spread them with the aid of a keyboard.
Speaking as someone who is… not as young as other folks on this board… at the time it made a VAST amount of sense.
If your kid got the disease at a young age (pre-school or so), then the antibodies they developed would very likely prevent them from re-acquiring the disease later on. This was a pretty widely-recognized medical fact, drilled into young parent’s heads by their family doctors.
Sure, it wasn’t a 100% immunity, but it was far better than nothing. And since getting the disease as a late teen or an adult could lead to sterility, deafness or other horrible side-effects, you really, REALLY wanted your kid to get the disease early since as Shiva notes you were pretty much guaranteed to get it at some point in your life.
Chickpox “play-dates” were such a common (and doctor-encouraged!) way of quasi-immunizing kids that military bases and many churches would publish the names of infected kids along with their home phone numbers in their weekly newsletters so that other young families could more easily make contact.
This is how I got the disease as a kid. Science and medical understanding, of course, has advanced significantly since.
Well, that and the vaccine.
I got it late in life. Like 2 weeks later they made the vaccine. I wasn’t a happy camper.
Oof! Yeah, that hurts. I still bring this up every now and then when I see my folks, just to rub it in their faces how I was “smarter” than adults even as a little kid, lol.
Oh man. That sucks.
What a great opportunity! I would have told all my friends that they had taken my blood to create the vaccine, and I was the one who had magic serum and have saved humanity from the scourge of this disease. Vicky would totally have gone out with me then.
BTW, if you’re doc will allow it, take the new two stage shingles shot. Two shots, hurt like hell (and I don’t mind shots - hurt = leaves the shoulder really sore) but you do NOT want shingles. One of my managers in my labs, around 40 I would guess, has them right now. He’s miserable, clothes rub and make him hurt, and some of the shingles are on his face - not pretty.
Yeah, last time I went to the doctor, she told me about this vaccine and I jumped all over it. Got the first one then, with the second one in about 3 months. You can get them starting at 50, and I think I was about two weeks past turning 50.
It does leave the shoulder quite painful for about a day (like a deep-bruise kind of pain), but if I don’t have to experience shingles one day - totally worth it.
I asked my doc about it, and she said i should wait until 60. She seemed to think it doesn’t last.
So is this like prohibitively expensive or something? I wonder why people can’t take it earlier and then just get a booster later.
Your immune response gets weaker as you age. So your immunity from vaccines is weaker, and/or you need more frequent boosters. At some point it isn’t worth it, except for high probability diseases like the flu.
I’ll quote from the National Vaccine Information Center:
According to the CDC, the vaccine reduced shingles by about half (51%) in adults 60 years and older.1 The manufacturer product insert states: “Vaccination with Zostavax does not result in protection of all vaccine recipients. The duration of protection beyond 4 years after vaccination with Zostavax is unknown. The need for revaccination has not been defined.”2 However, efficacy studies showed a significant decrease in vaccine effectiveness one-year post-vaccination and by nine years, Zostavax was determined to be no longer effective at preventing shingles.3
Shingrix vaccine is estimated to reduce shingles by over 90% in adults 50 years and older.4 The length of protection from Shingrix past 4 years is unknown.5
So, sounds to me like they don’t think it lasts very long, and it isn’t clear if getting a new dose later would actually increase effectiveness again.
Well I guess I will just pray for a couple of decades that I don’t encounter this living hell of a disease and maybe hope they do better in the meantime.
Those anti-vax people are nuts. I would have taken another vaccine if it was offered to me.
Heh sounds very much where I am as well. Hell, vaccinate me for anything you can! I get flu shots every year, pneumonia shots, you name it.