August 22, 2014
News & Features
Vaccination against chickenpox has been routine in the United States for nearly a decade. But outbreaks of the illness among children who have already been immunized have raised new concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine and the age when it is given.
For John V. Cody, 77, an artist in Lynnfield, Mass., it has been two months and counting since his personal introduction to one of the most unpleasant and underpublicized rites of getting older: a bout of the shingles. At first the clustered blisters that sprouted on the left side of his chest,...
FOR years, parents and pediatricians eagerly awaited the approval of the chickenpox vaccine in the hope of preventing a highly contagious illness that is usually uncomfortable and occasionally life-threatening. But in the two years the vaccine has been on the market, many doctors have disregarded...
Merck & Company today began shipping millions of doses of the nation's first chickenpox vaccine, Varivax. Some four million Americans get chickenpox every year. Most cases are mild, but the disease kills 100 people a year and hospitalizes 9,300. Serious complications include encephalitis and...
After years of controversy and delay, Federal officials yesterday approved the first vaccine in the United States to prevent chicken pox, one of the most contagious childhood diseases. Saying the vaccine was 70 percent to 90 percent effective in preventing the viral infection, the Food and Drug...
LEAD: HUMAN trials of a chicken pox vaccine are at last nearing completion, and the early evidence indicates it is safe and effective. But now scientists and Federal regulators are asking whether the vaccine should be used at all in healthy children.
LEAD: Chicken pox vaccine has been tested in thousands of children, and researchers are optimistic that routine inoculations against the common, rash-causing childhood disease will be available within a few years.
MOST POPULAR - HEALTH
- Study Finds That Brains With Autism Fail to Trim Synapses as They Develop
- Well: Food and the Dying Patient
- In Move to Curb Drug Abuse, D.E.A. Tightens Rule on Widely Prescribed Painkiller
- Well: Vegetarian Taco Night
- Personal Health: It’s Time to Say Goodbye to All That Stuff
- Well: Ask Well: Are Spray-On Sunscreens Safe?
- Well: Is Breakfast Overrated?
- Well: Lots of Reasons to Eat Fish
- Well: Instant Noodles Tied to Heart Risk
- Well: What Is So Special About Iyengar Yoga?