Will the same vaccine be used for children with leukemia as for normal children?Dr Brunell: There will be two different doses. A lower dose will be used for leukemic children than for normal children.A question that seems to come up frequently is the relationship of the vaccine to zoster. Someone wants to know whether the vaccine will prevent zoster, and perhaps we ought to ask whether giving repeated doses might possibly increase the risk of zoster or even make zoster more painful.Dr Gershon: We have had only one case of zoster that was definitely shown to be caused by the vaccine virus in patients with leukemia. Interestingly, the zoster rash appeared at the site of injection of the vaccine. This child had only one injection of the vaccine and was not one of the vaccines who received two injections; we have no evidence that giving more than one injection would increase the incidence on severity of zoster.If an infant gets chickenpox at 3 months of age, will he or she be at increased risk for zoster during childhood or infancy?Dr Guess: Based on the results of our study, it would appear that chickenpox that occurs in the first few months of life increases the risk of getting zoster early in life. There is an insufficient number of cases of chickenpox, however, to be able to make that statement on a firm, statistical basis. We can say only that the risk of early zoster is increased if chickenpox occurs during the first year of life.
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