FW: MD QUESTIONS CHICKENPOX VACCINE

[Guest guest]

> " ...Another magazine ad shows a child in a hospital bed being comforted by

> worried parents who say, " We never realized chickenpox could be so serious. "

> Then the ad, by chickenpox-vaccine maker Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station,

> N.J., lists statistics that would scare any parent: Four million people get

> chickenpox each year, 7,200 children and adolescents are hospitalized because

> of the viral infection and 40 die. But a reader who does the math will see

> that a child's actual risk is tiny--0.2% of kids with the illness are

> hospitalized, and 0.001% die.

>

> But Dr. Wilkes [ Wilkes, professor of medicine at the University of

> California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, who's mentioned earlier in the

> article] says, " I have three little kids and none had the vaccine " because of

> a controversy that isn't mentioned in the advertisement. Dr. Wilkes and

> others worry that the vaccine won't give patients lifetime immunity, allowing

> the virus to attack in adulthood when it can be particularly dangerous and

> more likely to be fatal. " In five to ten years, " he asks, " will we see people

> dying of chickenpox pneumonia " as their immunity wears off?... " [Merck's

> response is that the vaccine is being monitored and that the the decision may

> be made to give a booster shot.]

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