By Sandra G. Boodman

Back-to-school season means it's time for . . . a television commercial exhorting parents to vaccinate their children against that potentially deadly disease, chickenpox.

A recently launched ad sponsored by Merck features shots of a weeping rubber duck and several dejected-looking stuffed animals while a female voice warns that "children can die from the serious problems caused by chickenpox."

The TV spot and two companion print ads are timed to coincide with the beginning of the school year, a Merck spokeswoman said, because that's when parents are most likely to have their children immunized to meet vaccination requirements.

Twenty-nine states require proof that children entering day care or school either have had chickenpox or have been vaccinated against the disease, which kills about 50 American children and an equal number of adults annually.

For reasons that are unknown, chickenpox greatly increases the chance of contracting toxic shock syndrome or necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as "flesh eating bacteria" as well as encephalitis and pneumonia.

Although a single-dose vaccine was approved six years ago by the Food and Drug Administration, some pediatricians have been slow to recommend it, in some cases because they were not convinced it was necessary.

Their reluctance has led many parents to believe that chickenpox, which strikes about 4 million Americans annually, is more a childhood nuisance than a public health threat.

That is a notion public health officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics have sought to dispel. In the past year immunization rates have jumped by 10 percentage points and now approach 68 percent of children under age 3, according to Merck.

"Despite the fact that most of the time this disease doesn't result in complications, you can't tell which child is going to have a mild case and which child is going to be the one who dies," said Jane F. Seward, acting chief of childhood vaccine-preventable diseases at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "A lot of pediatricians have never seen a child die or even be hospitalized."

Every year, according to the CDC, about 11,000 Americans are hospitalized with serious complications from chickenpox, which tends to be more severe in adults, particularly those with compromised immune systems.

Saari doesn't think the ominous tone of the commercial, produced by the advertising agency Foote, Cone, Belding-New York, hypes the risk chickenpox poses. "I'm thinking of kids I see in the hospital who without good medical care wouldn't have made it," he said. In the past six months in Madison, a community of 400,000 people, Saari said, six children have been hospitalized for chickenpox and several nearly died.

"Historically it's kids in school or day care who bring the disease home," and that can be particularly serious if the household includes an infant -- the CDC recommends vaccination at 12 to 18 months -- or an elderly person or someone receiving chemotherapy, Saari noted. Chickenpox is among the most contagious diseases.

Unlike other vaccines that have been dogged by questions about whether they trigger autism -- a concern for which there is no scientific evidence, health officials maintain -- the chickenpox preventive has not encountered questions about its safety, Seward said.

Early concerns that a booster shot might be required to ensure continued immunity have not been borne out, according to Seward. It appears that a single dose administered after a child's first birthday offers sufficient protection.

For children who have not had either chickenpox or the vaccine, the CDC recommends immunization between the ages of 11 and 12. After age 12, two doses of vaccine administered one month apart are necessary.

Washington Post September 4, 2001; Page HE01

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Since I don't watch TV, I was unaware of the push for the chickenpox vaccine via commercials. However, it sure reminds me of the media deception that was put on TV earlier this year by the producers of ER. On February 15th, 2001, NBC's television drama "ER" contained a highly controversial story line about a family who chose not to vaccinate their children, and one of the children contracts measles and dies from complications while the doctors on the show lash out at the mother and categorically deny any risks posed by the vaccine (see links below). The vaccine manufacturers will use fear to convince parents to vaccinate their children against chicken pox. Let's review the stats. Chicken pox is not a fatal disease, but rather a very common, benign inflammatory condition. In the U.S. there are approximately 100 deaths (about half of these in children) and 10,000 hospitalizations each year for complications from chicken pox. Nearly all of these deaths were a result of over aggressive medical care. Physicians would treat the children with antibiotics, analgesics, or steroidal medications as their condition grew progressively worse. Physicians respond to each new symptom with yet another drug, until the children die. Of course there is no way to know if the 100 children who die from chicken pox every year would survive if they were not treated with such aggressive medical interventions. The study will also never be done, as no institutional review board would ever approve it. But I believe it is highly likely that if these children are provided with natural therapies, rather than immune suppressing ones, their bodies would easily recover and they would actually have a stronger immune system. But even more foundationally, one needs to examine why these children even became sick in the first place. In the vast majority of the cases, it is because they are being fed foods that are devastating their immune system. One cannot drink soda, fruit juice, milk, processed foods, and regular amounts of grains and sugar without severely impairing one's immune system and increasing one's risk of acquiring all sorts of infections. Related Articles: Chicken Pox: Why Do Children Die? Chicago Tribune Opposes Chickenpox Vaccine Mandate Educated Parents Respond to ER Boycott ER for Vaccine Misrepresentation Additional Responses To ER Vaccine Episode