Researchers Recommend Testing Adolescents Prior To Immunization.(for chickenpox)

2001 MAR 14 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by N.R. Saltmarsh, staff medical writer -- Testing adolescents who say they either have not had varicella-zoster virus (chickenpox) or do not remember can eliminate the need for universal vaccination.

Scientists working at a children's hospital in Rhode Island reviewed the records of 245 adolescent patients reporting to a hospital-based clinic and found that many who said they had not had chickenpox actually did test positive for the disease.

Z. Harel et al. found that among the 190 patients with a history of varicella, 30% had had the disease before age five; 56%, between ages five and 10; and 14%, at older than 10 years ("Serotesting versus presumptive varicella vaccination of adolescents with negative or uncertain history of chickenpox," Journal of Adolescent Health, 2001;28(1):26-29).

Of the remaining 55 patients who reported either no history or an uncertain history of varicella, 73% were tested for previous infection and 16% were vaccinated without testing. Researchers followed up with the remaining cases, for which no indication of vaccination existed in the records.

A staggering 80% of patients who said they had never had varicella or could not remember did test positive for the disease and thus had lifelong immunity. Seven of the ...