multiple sclerosis + chicken pox

How many who are dx'ed,                                                                                                                          . had a bout of chicken pox as a child ,that left you not feeling well for years after  the pox left?

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0%

 (0) 

ms

100%

 (1) 

herpes zoster

1 Member voted

[truelove47]

I screwed this poll up, lol

I was wondering why I got so sick at age 12 when I got the chicken pox
I had a bout so bad the old family doc told my mom he never saw anything like my  case      Just wondering abour virus

Also when I had to get vaccainated for school, I would not develp the scab on my arm
and the old family doc told my mom it would not take.

I was vaccinated 3 different times with no avail. I have a note from 1952 stating this

[meg321]

Do't you hate it when that happens...?  

I am not sure where you were going with this but I was going to get vaccinated for shingles until I found out MS folks shouldnt get the vaccine.  I could have this wrong or i am mixed up..

meg

[Quixotic1]

Ooops!  You're getting your viruses mixed up.

Chicken pox is caused by the virus Varicella Zoster.  this is a kissn' cousin to the Herpes Simplex viruses.  Most people have had this infection if the infection occurred in their household, even if they didn't have any sores.  It is so contagious that it is rare to have a sibling with it and not get it.  Most people who say they never had it actually do have antibodies against the virus, showing they had a subacute case.  Subgacute means the virus invaded their bodies and they made antibodies against it, but they never had symptoms.

Once you have Chickenpox the virus lives on forever in the dorsal root ganglia just outside the spinal cord.  Sometimes the virus gets activated and travels down a sensory nerve just under the skin and causes the condition known as "Shingles."  It is also sometimes called Herpes Zoster.  There is now a Shingle vaccine that people can get to avoid getting shingles.

Now, the innocculation that all people got in their left deltoid, leavingt the round scar - up until the early to mid 1970s was for smallpox.   People born after the early 1970s do not bear the Mark of the Beast on their arms.  Smallpox is caused by a virus called Variola orthopoxis.  It is not in the same family as the Chickenpos virus.   Smallpox was an often fatal and wildly contagious infection that wiped out whole communities before the development of the "smallpox innoculation."  This actually consisted of poking a cousin strain of virus, called cowpos, into the skin and hoping for a large reaction.  Cowpox dose not usually cause disease in humans, but the antibody against it does protect people from smallpox.

When people did not react to the smallpox innoculation, they usually tried over and over to get it to take.  I was one of those kids.  When it finally "took" my whole upper arm turned read, hot and hard and swelled all the way up into my shoulder and onto my chest.  I was sick with it for weeks and it was very painful.

Smallpox was officially declared erradicated in 1978 (I think).  The head of my peds training program in LA was the head of this project.  It is the first infectious disease to be erradicated.  They hope polio will be next and it has been absent from the Western Hemisphere for several years.  Smallpox exists only in some labs. 90% of all people in the US have had chickenpox whether they are aware of it or not.  There is no need to determine whether you have had chickenpox before getting the shingles vaccine.

Quix

[truelove47]

It has bothered me for a long time when my immune system got so messed up

I keep wondering at what age all this started because for most of my life i have not felt well and as a teenager all i did was sleep.

I had no stamina or energy and just thought I was a lazy kid, When I was at the neuro's office he told me he treated a lot of children with ms.  I was shocked

Thank you for educating me.It is so much appreciated,    be well quix , we need ya Linda

[truelove47]

Please disregard this POLL.   I messed it up  Sorry    Linda