Double Doses

January 15, 2011 at 2:15 pm (Health, Medical Discoveries) (lopazanski)

Chicken pox is one of the most contagious diseases around the world. Even though we have a vaccine for this disease it can still spread very easily. But in 2006 the CDC changed the doses from one dose to two doses because the odds of developing chicken pox were 95% lower in children that received two doses of the vaccination rather than one. The effectiveness of two doses is 98.3%. Eugene D. Shapiro, M.D professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale and his colleagues found that the two doses of Varicella vaccine are more effective to prevent Varicella then one. Other countries may begin to distribute two doses rather than one. “Other countries that are routinely immunizing children with varicella vaccine may consider changing to a two-dose regimen.” If other countries start using that idea then this will prevent more outbreaks of chicken pox. “We weren’t surprised to find that two doses of varicella vaccine are highly effective and are more likely to prevent varicella than a single dose,” said Shapiro. He had a brilliant idea on doubling the doses because it is more effective then only taking one. I believe that this is a great idea and will help children to be less affected by this disease. If it helps in the children’s and adults have a less risk at getting chicken pox I’m all for it. This article was very interesting because it’s good to know that vaccines are developing and making it better for the people around world.