Protecting Your Child From Chicken Pox

Red, itchy rashes start to appear on the face, chest, back, and spreads all over the body, before finally, fluid-filled blisters break and crust over. Chickenpox is an itch you can't scratch, and while most kids recover from it, the disease can be serious for other members of the family, which is why there are protective measures against it.

New Parent noted that about 4 million people would get chickenpox every year, and out of all these numbers, around 10,500 to 13,000 are hospitalized, and 100-150 died. Most people who died of the disease were healthy beforehand. On a good note, chickenpox vaccine is available and is the best way to protect not just the entire family, but the people within the vicinity as well.

Children should get their first dose of the vaccine between 12 and 15 months old, and the second does at age 4 to 6. Older people -- aged 13 years and older -- who never had chickenpox before should get two vaccine doses at only 28 days apart.

Parents who think twice about getting their children vaccinated from the disease be careful: The Charlotte Observer noted that in North Carolina, fifteen unvaccinated children were sent home by the health director and asked to be quarantined for 21 days.This confused and angered parents, but as Union County Health Director Phillip Tarte noted, isolation is necessary to "remove the most vulnerable away from the disease."

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that "Children who lack evidence of immunity and whose parents refuse vaccination should be excluded from school from the start of the outbreak through 21 days after rash onset of the last identified case."

This vaccine is very effective at preventing the disease and its complications, however, not everyone is allowed access, like pregnant women and others who have compromised immune systems. By getting the whole family vaccinated, you are also protecting those around you who are more vulnerable to the disease.