Study to Track Local Chickenpox Cases
National health researchers have picked the Antelope Valley as one of three places where they will track the effectiveness of a new chickenpox vaccine.
By tracking chickenpox cases in the high desert before and after the new vaccine is released nationwide, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta hope to see how much progress is being made in eradicating the pesky, sometimes deadly illness.
In the Antelope Valley, Philadelphia and a county in Texas, researchers have begun collecting data on how often chickenpox, also called varicella, occurs. They want to learn who contracts it and whether complications occur.
“It gives us a look at what’s happening now in the population in terms of varicella and gives us something to compare against once the vaccine is released,” said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control.
A vaccine that protects against chickenpox is administered in Japan and Europe, but the Federal Drug Administration has not yet approved its use in the United States. Health officials say that may happen later this year, and when it does, the new study will help determine how effective the medicine is and how widely it is being used.
The study may cause Antelope Valley residents to receive a phone call from a county health official when a case of chickenpox occurs in the household.
“We’re going to ask them questions such as when was the onset date, was there a fever, how high was the fever and did you have any pre-existing medical conditions,” explained Teresa Maupin, a registered nurse who is the study’s Antelope Valley project director.
She said county health officials offered to take part in the national study last year and proposed the Antelope Valley be used because it is a geographically distinct community of 280,000, where about 5,000 children are born annually.
Chickenpox most often affects children, ages 1 to 14. They usually develop a rash but recover without complications. Sometimes, adults contract the disease and exhibit more severe symptoms.
Getting the names of Antelope Valley residents with chickenpox will be the main challenge. Health care providers are required to tell the county about cases of diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, but not chickenpox.
To gather information on such patients, Maupin contacted Antelope Valley sites where staff members might become aware of chickenpox cases, including hospitals, walk-in clinics, physicians’ offices, schools, child-care centers and large employers.
She has asked them to report any cases of the illness. Project members then follow up by conducting the voluntary telephone surveys.
Maupin said she’s received excellent cooperation. “For the first two weeks in January, we had about 70 cases of chickenpox reported to us,” she said.
About 7,000 people a year are hospitalized because of chickenpox, and about 90 deaths annually are blamed on the disease.
