Word: chickenpox
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Just when we thought the College's illness paranoia was over. Today, a student in Eliot was diagnosed with a case of "probable chickenpox," according to an email sent by Eliot Resident Dean Michael Canfield...
FlyBy thinks it's safe to say that most Harvard students have contracted chickenpox at some point in their lives or received the vaccination, making this small outbreak of little concern. However, the email urges those who are not immune—and who fall into a high-risk health category—to contact UHS immediately...
...Chickenpox is an acute, generalized viral disease. It is one of the most easily communicable of diseases, especially in the early stages. The virus is spread from person to person by direct contact or through the air (via respiratory secretions or airborne spread of secretions from the chickenpox lesions). The usual incubation period is 13 to 17 days. Initial symptoms may be sore throat, fever, headache or other viral like symptoms. These often occur a few days before the rash, which traditionally starts on covered parts of the body (chest or trunk...
...shingles vaccine has been available since 2006, but to date, only 2% of Americans 60 and over have been vaccinated against the disease, an extremely painful condition caused by the chickenpox virus that hits 1 million new patients a year - almost half of all unvaccinated adults who live to 85. Getting vaccinated also means avoiding the risk of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), which people with shingles sometimes develop, causing debilitating pain for months or even years...
...then, is there so much concern about vaccines? In the U.S., few health issues get people as riled up as the persistent, though almost completely discredited, argument that routine childhood immunizations cause autism. In the U.K., doctors and policy makers are debating whether to encourage universal vaccination against chickenpox, a step that U.S. medical authorities took in 1995. Even that debate - focused not on the vaccine's safety, but on whether it's really necessary - has become surprisingly bitter...