I can’t help feeling like a freak of nature. “Nobody gets chicken pox twice,” they all say. Umm, sorry to disagree, but I did.
In fact, I’m one of a relatively large group of Americans who scratched their way through two bouts of the scaly spots. A 2006 report by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed some 13 percent of us have double the suffering.
Which is why Madeline’s post about the germ-sharing “pox parties” really creeped me out. Parents are purposely exposing their kids to the varicella virus rather than queuing up at the pediatrician’s office for the vaccine.
I hate to burst their bubbles, but you might not be protecting them from all that much. The secondary infections are rare, according to the CDC, but they ARE possible. I present myself as Exhibit A . . . and Exhibit B. I was 2-years-old when I came down with my first minor case, which I then passed on to my poor mother. What is true is the rumor that it’s better to get chicken pox as a child. I was itchy and lethargic. My mother was deathly ill, with a sick child to boot.
Then it all came back.
So what’s the scoop? Dr. Jane Seward of the CDC told Reuters Health back in 2006 that some of us just don’t develop enough antibodies the first time around. Not every case of chicken pox is a true pox – there are other diseases masquerading as the varicella virus (gives me a great idea for this year’s Halloween costume). Those who truly do suffer twice usually develop a mild case first, at a young age (yup, that sounds about right).
Another little pin in the bubbles? Twenty percent of people who went through chicken pox once will have it come back in the form of shingles as adult, an activation of what they call the herpes zoster virus – which is related to varicella. Just think, a little party today, inflammation of the spinal column down the road.
Still want to party?
Image: Spud
