Chicken pox vaccination

Pediatrician Lawrence Kagan, MD, shares advice for parents on the most effective way to vaccinate your child for chicken pox and at which ages your child should be vaccinated
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Chicken pox vaccination

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Chicken pox is actually a viral xantham that many, many children, if not all children, in our generation had. And almost children, if not all children, survived it and did very well. But on a very rare occasion children will develop a complication of the disease that's more than just a pock mark scar because they scratched their lesion. Some children will scratch their lesion and develop a secondary bacterial infection that will cause significant tissue damage. Unfortunately I saw one young child at Children's Hospital that actually lost a limb because of the infection. Another potential complication is encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. So chicken pox is not a benign viral process. It definitely can cause complications. But it happens exceedingly rarely. That's why we started the vaccination program. And if you received two Varivax vaccines, so one at around year one of life, and one again boosted a little bit at about 4 years of life, you will be provided good protection from chicken pox. The vaccine is a live virus vaccine, but it is safe, and it is effective at reducing the incidence of chicken pox.


Pediatrician Lawrence Kagan, MD, shares advice for parents on the most effective way to vaccinate your child for chicken pox and at which ages your child should be vaccinated

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Lawrence Kagan, MD

Pediatrician

Lawrence Kagan, MD, FAAP, is a UCLA honors graduate, with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. He received medical training at USC Keck School of Medicine, and completed his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In addition to passionately studying neonatal, general pediatric and adolescent medicine at CHLA, he had the opportunity to train under some of the greatest minds in subspecialty pediatrics, diagnosing and managing the rarest and most complicated childhood ailments. Prior to opening Westside Pediatrics, he worked as an attending physician at the CHLA Emergency Department as well as at Cedars Sinai Urgent Care. Dr. Kagan is a native of Los Angeles and is happily married with two children.

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Transcription: 

Chicken pox is actually a viral xantham that many, many children, if not all children, in our generation had. And almost children, if not all children, survived it and did very well. But on a very rare occasion children will develop a complication of the disease that's more than just a pock mark scar because they scratched their lesion. Some children will scratch their lesion and develop a secondary bacterial infection that will cause significant tissue damage. Unfortunately I saw one young child at Children's Hospital that actually lost a limb because of the infection. Another potential complication is encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. So chicken pox is not a benign viral process. It definitely can cause complications. But it happens exceedingly rarely. That's why we started the vaccination program. And if you received two Varivax vaccines, so one at around year one of life, and one again boosted a little bit at about 4 years of life, you will be provided good protection from chicken pox. The vaccine is a live virus vaccine, but it is safe, and it is effective at reducing the incidence of chicken pox.