The varicella vaccine protects against the disease commonly known as chickenpox.

Saturday, November 17, 2007, Vaccinate or go to jail at the point of a gun. Parents with their children are forced hearded into a courthouse at the threat of imprisonment to vaccinate children for Chicken pox and Hepatitis B. Patrolling the scene was a SWAT team of policemen with dogs.

ONE DAY last month, I awoke to an e-mail from a mother in my 15-month-old son's playgroup, with a subject line of "chicken pox." It alerted the other six families in the group that her son had been exposed to chicken pox two weeks earlier, and that he had now contracted it. I was concerned that she hadn't told the ...

Teenagers could be given a raft of vaccines to protect them against conditions ranging from chicken pox to cancer, experts have said.

AUSTIN - Visions of a virus spreading from child to child in a crowded elementary school classroom make it easy for state officials to require kids to be vaccinated against measles, polio or chicken pox. A mandatory vaccine against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted disease is proving to be a tougher sell in statehouses around the country.

A few years ago one of my good friends got shingles a couple of months after she had had her baby. She said it was excruciating pain and was out of work for 6 months because of it. My daughter just got her chicken pox vaccination and for some reason it just reminded me of my friend and the ordeal she went through. So, I thought I would complete....