Vaccines Prevent More Than the Named Disease

By Ruth Kava — December 13, 2016

Anti-vaxxers give several excuses (all debunked, of course) for their stance against vaccines. These include that vaccines cause autism, that they cause the disease they supposedly prevent, and that these childhood diseases, especially measles and chickenpox, are simply a natural rite of passage that shouldn't be interfered with. But what they typically don't acknowledge is that such vaccines also prevent some pretty serious ailments down the road.

Chicken pox, caused by the varicella zoster virus (a member of the herpes group), causes fever, malaise and an itchy rash of small blisters. It can, particularly in immune-compromised persons, instigate other problems such as bacterial infections of the skin in children and pneumonia in adults.

And even decades after the initial infection has died away, the virus lies dormant in the nervous system of the patient. After some precipitating illness or event, it can be activated and cause shingles — an intensely itchy and painful rash. This rash also consists of blisters that are distributed along the area of the body served by that nerve (or dermatome) as shown in this photo.......To Read More...