I am kind of scared. I read somewhere that chicken pox in adults can be deadly.
I knew I should be concerned about getting it as getting it as an adult can be more of a pain, but I didn't know it could be deadly. Should I ask to be vaccinated with the chicken pox vaccine?
Thank you for your responses
I am kind of scared. I read somewhere that chicken pox in adults can be deadly.
I knew I should be concerned about getting it as getting it as an adult can be more of a pain, but I didn't know it could be deadly. Should I ask to be vaccinated with the chicken pox vaccine?
Thank you for your responses
Hey there.
I never had chickenpox as a child and ended up catching it when I was 16 years old. The pain was tremendous! My body responded very strongly to the chicken pox and I ended up with pox blisters in my nose, on my eyelids and in my mouth and throat, making it almost impossible to even drink water comfortably. I can't imagine what it would be like as a fully mature adult having this disease.
My suggestion? Get the vaccine! It's easy and readily available. It would put your mind at rest; you wouldn't have to worry about maybe having to be completely out of it for a week or two.
Chickenpox at any age can be deadly, although it gets worse as you get older. Talk to your doctor about the vaccine if you never had the disease. When I went in for my pre-college physical, my doc noticed that I'd never had the disease or the vaccination, so she tested me for antibodies (since some people are naturally immune, and they were drawing blood anyway). It turned out that I wasn't immune, so I got the shots. It's two shots for adults at some interval. The first one I felt fine. The second shot I got a raised red itchy area at the injection site, but it went away. Definitely much better than getting sick. I still am paranoid and avoid people with chickenpox, but it's nice to know that the chances are much lower.
Good idea to get vaccinated. Adults also get what is called "shingles". It is when the chicken pox virus re-erupts and it is far worse than childhood chicken pox. The varicella vaccine is a live vaccine, it takes two injections and may cause some redness at the injection site.
I was paronoid too since I never had chicken pox and I definetly requested the vaccine during my physicals. I got the shot and verified the titer after the shot. It is important to have the titer check after it to make sure you really got the inmunity to it.
