Persons with cancer or other immune deficient diseases are also very prone to developing shingles. The problem is that doctors cannot always determine which children are at particularly high risk for a severe outcome. Those who have cancer and AIDS can be given VZIG when necessary. Consequently, it is true that healthy children are also at some risk for needing hospital care due to chickenpox infection. We do not routinely provide VZIG for healthy children, as it is a blood product and used only when absolutely necessary.
Many parents attempt to control the circumstances whereby their children get exposed to chickenpox.
For example, they intentionally expose their susceptible children to infected friends or relatives. They recognize that it is prudent to get the infection over with earlier in life, before they become at risk for more serious outcomes later. While this is still a commonly used strategy, there is some risk involved because parents cannot be assured that their healthy children will not develop a severe form of the infection. In this regard, the new chickenpox vaccine may well prove a safer and preferable way for children to develop a much milder infection, yet becoming immune to chickenpox virus later in life. In December 1998, a chickenpox vaccine was licensed in Canada.