It is one of those necessary journeys of growing up, an itchy, scratchy part of childhood called the chicken pox.
Until 10 years ago, getting them meant waiting it out.
Some people faced life threatening complications, resulting in 11,000 hospitalizations every year.
Once a vaccine came on the market in 1995, the number of cases of chicken pox dropped dramatically. "Disease in the children that have been vaccinated usually is milder than the Natural disease, causing many fewer lesions and much less fever in those Children," Dr. Cornelia Dekker of Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital explains.
Not every parent buys that, preferring instead to allow their kid to get the chicken pox the old fashioned way, through exposure.
Some experts say, the natural way is not always the safest way.
Just last week the CDC recommended that kids age four through six get not one, but two doses of the vaccine, to ensure that it works and fights off life threatening complications.
