HHS HealthBeat (February 5, 2010)

Refusing the chickenpox vaccine

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

There are parents who refuse to get their kids vaccinated. What happens to those kids?

Jason Glanz of Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research in Denver looked at 133 children who had to see a doctor because of chickenpox between 1998 and 2008. He compared them to similar children who did not get chickenpox.

[Jason Glanz speaks] ``Children of parents who chose not to vaccinate with the chickenpox vaccine were nine times more likely to be infected than vaccinated children.’’

Glanz points out that chickenpox can cause a couple of weeks of illness and sometimes leave permanent scars. It’s even capable of causing death.

The study in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011