WHY ARE VACCINATED G-E-T KIDS GETTING CHICKENPOX?
Friday, January 20th, 2006 -- 2:39 PM
State health officials are trying to find out why so many children came down with the chickenpox in the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District -- despite vaccinations. Forty-four students have gotten chickenpox. All but two had received vaccinations, which health officials say are 85 to 97 percent effective. Wisconsin Immunization Program director Dan Hopfensperger says it's the state's largest outbreak he can recall among vaccinated children. The only other similar case occurred at a Dane County school in 2003, where slightly fewer students were affected. Hopfensperger says the state never determined a cause in that outbreak. In 2001, Wisconsin began requiring all kindergarteners be immunized for chickenpox. The state had 487 cases last year -- down from more than five-thousand in 1996.Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.