D&D and the rising pandemic

[Zardnaar]

Well avoidance was also an option, which would mean no pain in later life.

Think people may have done it as it's worse getting it later in life.

How true that is idk but I remember words along the lines "at least you got it now vs later".

I wasn't deliberately infected just picked it up via school along with measles.

 

[Ryujin]

Think people may have done it as it's worse getting it later in life.

How true that is idk but I remember words along the lines "at least you got it now vs later".

I wasn't deliberately infected just picked it up via school along with measles.

Yes, it can be more serious in later life. Or you might not get it at all. For me, that possibility was taken away.

 

[Cadence]

Yes, it can be more serious in later life. Or you might not get it at all. For me, that possibility was taken away.

Given how innocuous it was viewed in my own childhood (1970s-80s), that something like 95% of people caught it at some point, and that it was thought very serious later in life, I'm not surprised some people had parties.

Knowing more these days about there being some hospitalization risk, there being a vaccine, and knowledge of shingles being more widespread, it feels a lot different today! (Well,.checks news on COVID, to some people).

 

[Ryujin]

Given how innocuous it was viewed in my own childhood (1970s-80s), that something like 95% of people caught it at some point, and that it was thought very serious later in life, I'm not surprised some people had parties.

Knowing more these days about there being some hospitalization risk, there being a vaccine, and knowledge of shingles being more widespread, it feels a lot different today! (Well,.checks news on COVID, to some people).

I know a lot of people my age (late 50s) who never had Chicken pox. The only exposure that I can remember, for myself, was the planned one. As such I'm made to wonder how many of that 95% you stated were similarly infected on purpose.

 

[Hussar]

I know a lot of people my age (late 50s) who never had Chicken pox. The only exposure that I can remember, for myself, was the planned one. As such I'm made to wonder how many of that 95% you stated were similarly infected on purpose.

I don't know. I know that I had never heard of "chicken pox parties" until I got online. If it was done around in rural Ontario, it's news to me. OTOH, it was pretty much one of those things that everyone goes through. Someone managing to make it into adulthood without catching it was pretty rare, AFAIK.

I had mine over the Christmas holidays. Just a gift that kept on giving.

 

[Umbran]

... and that it was thought very serious later in life,

Way back when, my freshman roommate in college got chicken pox. The university had to quarantine him in separate housing, He was told that to protect his vision he had to keep the room they gave him dim/dark, and shouldn't spend any significant time reading (these last to help control headache that can come with the illness). High fever he had for a while had risk of producing sterility, and he had risk of hepatitis or encephalitis. It wasn't awesome.

 

[Mannahnin]

I've been pretty concerned that I would end up bringing it home from the hospital. So far, however, I've avoided that.

But, my hands... my poor hands...

Likewise. Moisturizer has become an absolute essential for mine.

 

[billd91]

I know a lot of people my age (late 50s) who never had Chicken pox. The only exposure that I can remember, for myself, was the planned one. As such I'm made to wonder how many of that 95% you stated were similarly infected on purpose.

Most people I knew got it young. I didn't get it from any kind of chicken pox party, my older sister brought it home from kindergarten and ended up sharing it with me (how generous of her). I remember having a pretty mild case. But I knew other people who hadn't gotten it until high school and college - and when they got it, it really kicked their asses.

This was, of course, quite a while before the vaccine, which didn't get approved for the US until 1995 - so the first kids really fully vaccinated as part of their lifelong immunization program are late Millennials and Gen Z. So when I look back on it, given a choice between getting your kids a mild illness early vs hoping they manage to dodge getting it for the rest of their lives, I don't blame Silent Generation or Boomer parents allowing or helping their kids get exposed to chicken pox. Moreover, since the link between the two diseases was noticed largely by kids breaking out with chicken pox after an adult broke out with shingles, I don't blame the broad, not particularly well-educated in medicine public from not really considering shingles as an older adult as a likely consequence of chicken pox parties. Sometimes, you gotta give people the benefit of the doubt - most of them were parenting the best they could based on what they knew at the time and their own experiences - many from entirely before most immunizations.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Think people may have done it as it's worse getting it later in life.

How true that is idk but I remember words along the lines "at least you got it now vs later".

I wasn't deliberately infected just picked it up via school along with measles.

It absolutely is (for at least some values of "later"); when my wife had shingles a couple years back, she was in a panic that I'd get chicken pox since I'd never had it (which, initially neither she nor my doctor believed when I told them).

It was also surprisingly difficult finding a place locally that had the adult vaccine for it.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Well avoidance was also an option, which would mean no pain in later life.

Well, not guaranteed. The incidence of encephalopathy and brain damage, sterility, and other unfortunate side effect of the disease are more pronounced in adulthood. It's a very contagous disease. The last time I had to talk with a patient with chicken pox, not shingles, as an adult I needed the full PPE suite. His case was ... disfiguring to boot.

As far as childhood diseases go, CP is pretty mild with no guarantee of shingles later on. Some choices are unfortunate, but you make do the best you can with the information you have at the time.

Doing a little digging, as of 2008 ~95% of the adult population has had chicken pox at some point in their life. Approximately one third of those will develop shingles. Taking the varicella vaccine can reduce the risk of developing shingles significantly, as well as avoiding chicken pox if you haven't had that to begin with.

CDC press release, May, 18 2008.