Dangers of Chickenpox
Prior to the introduction of vaccine in 1995 in the US (released in 1988 in Japan & Korea), there were around 4,000,000 cases per year in the U.S., mostly children, with typically 10,500–13,000 hospital admissions (range, 8,000–18,000), and 100–150 deaths each year. Though mostly children caught it, the majority of deaths (by as much as 80%) were among adults.
During 2003 and the first half of 2004, the CDC reported eight deaths from varicella, six of whom were children or adolescents. These deaths and hospital admissions have substantially declined in the U.S. due to vaccination, though the rate of shingles infection has increased for the same reason. Ten years after the vaccine was recommended in the U.S., the CDC reported as much as a 90% drop in chicken pox cases, a varicella-related hospital admission decline of 71% and a 97% drop in chicken pox deaths among those under 20.
Read more about this topic: Varicella Vaccine
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