Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025]

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025] [English] ; Vaccine Information Statement: Varicella (Chickenpox) Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025]
• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Description:
  A VIS or Vaccine Information Statement is a document, produced by CDC, that informs vaccine recipients – or their parents or legal representatives – about the benefits and risks of a vaccine they are receiving. All vaccine providers, public or private, are required by the National Vaccine Childhood Injury Act (NCVIA – 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-26) to give the appropriate VIS to the patient (or parent or legal representative) prior to every dose of specific vaccines. The appropriate VIS must be given prior to the vaccination, and must be given prior to each dose of a multi-dose series. It must be given regardless of the age of the recipient: from https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/about-vis/index.html.
  
  VISs have been translated into about 40 languages. These can be found on the website of CDC's partner, https://www.immunize.org/vis/. Not every VIS has been translated into every language.
  
  Why get vaccinated? Varicella vaccine can prevent varicella. Varicella, also called “chickenpox,” causes an itchy rash that usually lasts about a week. It can also cause fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, and headache. It can lead to skin infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the blood vessels, swelling of the brain and/or spinal cord covering, and infections of the bloodstream, bone, or joints. Some people who get chickenpox get a painful rash called “shingles” (also known as herpes zoster) years later. Chickenpox is usually mild, but it can be serious in infants under 12 months of age, adolescents, adults, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system. Some people get so sick that they need to be hospitalized. It doesn’t happen often, but people can die from chickenpox. Most people who are vaccinated with 2 doses of varicella vaccine will be protected for life.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Chickenpox Chickenpox / Prevention & Control Chickenpox Vaccine Chickenpox Vaccine / Adverse Effects Vaccines
• Keywords:
  Varicella
• Series:
  Vaccine Information Statement
• Subseries:
  Varicella Vaccine
• Publisher:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Fact Sheet ; Patient Education Handout
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• Topic:
  Diseases & Conditions
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  2 pdf pages
• Collection(s):
  Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f920da933bd06363a879ce559e01a0ff7b763c5dc0e0e902b883cfc93ca548e237cc23300c94db1cadfe8a49b645ad6456340a5d8eb178da23306ad9028e41ce
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/253011/cdc_253011_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 203.75 KB ]