Chickenpox Cases In Adults Can Be Fatal

On March 11, a healthy 25-year-old mother came down with chickenpox, which she’d caught from her preschooler (who had not received the recommended vaccine).

Over the next few days, she developed a cough and shortness of breath. On March 14, she was hospitalized with severe pneumonia and brain inflammation. On March 15, she became comatose. On March 17, she died.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report this month on her case and those of two other young women, 23 and 32, who died of chickenpox this year after contracting the chickenpox virus, varicella, from young children with the disease.

Although the disease is now less common, adults who get it are at much-greater risk of dying - most often from pneumonia - than are children.

The agency recommends that all children under 13 who have not had the infection be vaccinated. The preferred time is between the ages of 12 and 18 months, but the vaccine can be given at any age.

It is also especially recommended for people over 13 who haven’t had chickenpox and who are close family contacts of people whose immune systems are suppressed.