Immunization is recommended for adults who have not had chickenpox, the researchers said in a report for members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, meeting this week in New Orleans. Chickenpox, usually a childhood disease, also strikes adults. About 85 percent of adults who have not had chickenpox and haven t been vaccinated will get the sickness when exposed to the disease, said Dr. Krow Ampofo, who led the research. The infection rate drops to about 20 percent among vaccinated adults who are later exposed to the chickenpox virus. It s a milder form.
Recovery time is quicker.
One of the most serious complications of chickenpox, especially for adults, is encephalitis. Ampofo, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, said rates of infections did not decrease significantly during the first three years the chickenpox vaccine was available for U.S. children, beginning in 1995. Since 1998, as more and more children were vaccinated, the incidence of chickenpox has declined, he said. As additional transmission routes are broken by the expanding use of the vaccine, the chickenpox virus finds fewer hospitable hosts. The vaccine is for healthy children 12 months of age or older and for adolescents and adults who have not had chickenpox.