Chickenpox cases fall 80% over decade

Chickenpox cases in the United States dropped almost 80 percent between 2000 and 2010 in 31 states following routine use of the varicella vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Updated figures published by the CDC last week also show that in the four years after a two-dose vaccine was recommended for children in 2006, cases of chickenpox declined about 70 percent. The biggest drop occurred in children between the ages of 5 and 9. “This is one of our success stories,” Dr. Charles Shubin, medical director of the Children’s Health Center of Mercy FamilyCare in Baltimore, said when earlier figures were released last year. The number of states with adequate chickenpox reporting systems jumped from 12 to 31 between 2000 and 2010, allowing the CDC to better monitor the effectiveness of the vaccine, introduced for routine use in the United States in 1996, the agency said. In those 31 states...