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Chickenpox vaccine added to requirements
Common childhood illness is not harmless, officials say
By Michelle Alaimo
Parents can add another item to their kindergarten or preschool checklist--the varicella vaccine for chickenpox.
Beginning July 1, 2001, all children entering any California kindergarten, preschool, daycare or nursery will be required by law to obtain a chickenpox vaccination.
The new shot requirement was approved late last year with the passage of SB 741. Until now, the varicella shot was optional for children age 1 and up who have not already had the disease. Kaiser Permanente pediatrician Jesse Tannenbaum said that without the vaccine, those children who contract chickenpox could face complications that could become life threatening.
"Chickenpox is not a harmless disease," Tannenbaum said. "There are more than 80 deaths a year from it."
He adds that chickenpox is easily spread from person to person by air or by contact with the fluid of a chickenpox blister. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the common childhood disease causes itching, fever and tiredness, and can lead to severe skin infection, scars, pneumonia, brain damage, or death.
The CDC states that most people who receive the vaccine will never get chickenpox.
As with any vaccine, there is the possibility of side effects, said Laura Levins, Public Health Nurse for the Santa Clara County Communicable Diseases Department.
About 5 percent of the children immunized could get a weakened version of chickenpox, sometime in their life, resulting in less than 50 spots, Tannenbaum said. He adds that the majority of patients only experience mild tenderness at the injection site and possibly a mild rash and never contract chickenpox. Those who contract the full-blown disease must wait until the chickenpox spots have crusted before returning to school, which generally takes at least six days.
The mandate makes the chickenpox vaccine one of 10 shots required of students before enrolling in any California school, child-care center, day nursery, nursery school, family day-care, home or development center. Many school districts across the county reported that a large number of students have already received the chickenpox vaccine.
The varicella vaccine has been available in the United States since 1995 and overseas for more than 12 years.
A child must be at least a year old before receiving the vaccine and must not have ever had chickenpox. People 13 years and older can also receive the shot in two doses, four to eight weeks apart. Those children who receive another live virus, such as MMR, must either have the chickenpox shot on the same day or wait one to six months before receiving the chickenpox shot.
"If you don't get the chickenpox shot at the same time as another live virus vaccine, your body is so busy making antibodies to the first live shot that the second one is not as effective," Tannenbaum said.
California law provides exemptions to those with personal beliefs or a medical exemption that prohibits the student from having the shot. The waiver is available from any school district.
Those who have a life-threatening allergic reaction to gelatin, the antibiotic neomycin, or have had chickenpox, should not receive the shot, CDC officials said.
School districts typically notify parents of the new mandated shot in newsletters, letters home, posters, websites and through the kindergarten registration packet. School district costs associated with complying with the new state mandate may be reimbursed states SB741.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
