Varicella vaccine, also known as chickenpox vaccine, is a vaccine that protects against chickenpox, with one dose preventing 95 percent of moderate disease and 100 percent of severe disease, and two doses more effective still. A live attenuated varicella vaccine using the Oka strain was developed by Michiaki Takahashi and colleagues in Japan in the early 1970s, and American vaccinologist Maurice Hilleman's team developed a version based on the Oka strain in the United States in 1981, which first became commercially available in 1984 and was licensed for use in the US under the brand name Varivax in 1995. The vaccine is available either by itself or combined with the MMR vaccine as the MMRV vaccine, and a related vaccine, the zoster vaccine, is used to prevent disease caused by the same virus later in life. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Facts
FAQs
How many doses of the chickenpox vaccine are given, and what happens if a vaccinated person still gets chickenpox?
Two doses are recommended, and breakthrough chickenpox in a vaccinated person is usually mild.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two doses for children, the first at 12 to 15 months old and the second at 4 to 6 years old. People aged 13 and older who have never had chickenpox or been vaccinated should also get two doses, at least 28 days apart. If a vaccinated person does get chickenpox, which the agency calls breakthrough chickenpox, the symptoms are usually mild, with fewer or no blisters and low or no fever.
Connections
Treats
Source Varicella vaccine (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
2. Varicella vaccine (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine, lead section
Varicella vaccine, also known as chickenpox vaccine, is a vaccine that protects against chickenpox.
Lead
American vaccinologist Maurice Hilleman's team developed a chickenpox vaccine in the United States in 1981, based on the "Oka strain" of the varicella virus.
Treats: Chickenpox, Lead: treats Chickenpox
If given to those who are not immune within five days of exposure to chickenpox it prevents most cases of the disease.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.