Chicken pox no more?

It's strange to think about some of the medical breakthroughs that have already happened during my lifetime. Often, many of the major vaccines eliminated diseases that many of us in our 20s have never seen firsthand --- measles, mumps, polio. Today I worked on a story about meningitis and gathered information on the vaccine to target meningococcal meningitis. That's one of the types that can spread very rapidly with detrimental, even deadly results. It's a vaccine that's beginning to make some of the meningitis scares a thing of the past.

That led to talk about other vaccines that have changed the way things are just within the last 20 or so years. The doctor I spoke with mentioned the chicken pox vaccine. I remember as a child you were almost expected to get the chicken pox. Kids bravely bore out the days of itching and spots as a right of passage. Now, it's become much less common. I guess kids will have to find some new bragging rights; someday chicken pox scars could be completely off the table.