HAMILTON COUNTY - Your children may need a second vaccine to protect them from a highly contagious virus. Chicken pox outbreaks are increasing, leading to new immunization requirements for school age children.
Jennifer Juarez is one of thousands of Hoosier parents who is having to take their child back in for shots.
"They've changed the school requirements," she said.
This year, students entering kindergarten, first grade, or grades 6 through 12 need two doses of the varicella vaccine, which guards against chicken pox.
"I thought one was enough," said Juarez.
But over the last few years, researchers have been finding out that sometimes one dose is not enough. Vaccinated children were still getting the virus.
"We are seeing more cases of chicken pox," said Janice Vanmetre, director of nursing at the Hamilton County Health Department. "The vaccine only covered about 80 to 85 percent and because of that they recommended that kids get another vaccine and that way kids who weren't covered by the first were covered by the second."
Last fall, an outbreak in Zionsville infected a group of high school students.
"As we grow, the virus itself mutates and depending on how many of the antibodies have built over time, there may be times when we need a booster," said Dr. Dipti Vyas, pediatrician, County Line Medical Pavilion.
Doctors say the second dose of the vaccine is not just to protect children. They say it's also to protect parents because they say if you get chicken pox as an adult it's much more dangerous than if you catch it as a child.
"After a certain age, it's more severe. You have more lesions and more risk of infection," said Dr. Vyas.
"In adults it can be quite deadly. They can develop some type of pneumonias too that are hard to treat," said Vanmetre.
Doctors are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated now, to beat the rush of patients that come right before school starts.
Learn more - This story explains that health departments in Indiana will no longer pay for vaccines for insured children.
Chickenpox vaccine - CDC
Immunization info
