Center of Public Health of Ukraine
Recently, a video spread on social networks, where a doctor spoke about the appeal of a mother whose child was infected with chicken pox at a so-called chicken pox party: the child had a fever, a rash all over the body, in particular in the mouth and genitals, severe itching, so she felt discomfort when urinating , eating, constantly cried.
It turns out that such almost medieval things are still practiced, and instead of safe vaccination, children are "forced" to be infected in order to build immunity. Why such "parties" are dangerous and what is the advantage of vaccination - we explain below.
"Chicken parties" appeared in the middle of the last century due to the low level of knowledge of the population about the danger of infection. A crowd of healthy children gathered around the child with chicken pox, and after a few days most of them fell ill. It was mistakenly believed that the immunity obtained in this way would be able to protect the child better.
Natural course of chicken pox VS vaccination: what is the advantage of vaccination
The natural course of most childhood infections is often unpredictable. One child can survive chicken pox without complications, while another will end up in intensive care. Allowing an infectious disease to take its course and deliberately, without apparent reasons, to refuse vaccination - at the very least - parental irresponsibility
The load on immunity during natural infection and during vaccination differs several times. During the natural course of the disease, the child's immunity fights against thousands of viruses. After vaccination, it is not a disease, but a specific immunity that reliably protects the child.
With natural chickenpox infection, some of its consequences make themselves felt years later: the virus remains "sleeping" in nerve fibers. When immunity decreases, stress and other adverse conditions, it becomes active again, manifesting itself in the form of herpes zoster.
Vaccination is indicated for those who have not had chicken pox before. In Ukraine, vaccination against chicken pox is not mandatory, but recommended, so it is not free for citizens. You can buy the vaccine at a pharmacy.
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