Angelina Jolie has shone by her absence at the premiere of her film Invincible. The director has indeed contracted chickenpox … while vaccines exist.
Angelina Jolie is making the news again for a reason other than her films. The actress-director was forced to cancel the promotion of her film, Invincible… Because of chickenpox. No doubt she should have been vaccinated …
“I just wanted to be clear and honest about the reason for my absence from the events aroundInvincible in the next few days. I found out that I had chickenpox. I’m going to have to stay home scratching myself, ”jokes Angelina Jolie in a short video posted online. The disease, extremely contagious, therefore pushes the American director to remain confined to her home. Mother of six children, she was logically at very high risk of being infected herself.
Vaccination would prevent a quarter of cases
Angelina Jolie would have been well advised to be vaccinated, because chickenpox affects 32,000 adults per year. Benign in children, this viral disease can have serious consequences in adults. Indeed, after 14 years, the risk of developing varicella pneumonia, or even of dying, is greatly increased. “Following the vaccine recommendations would prevent a quarter of infections by the chickenpox virus occurring in adults”, recalls the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
An Inserm team has developed a mathematical model to assess the impact of vaccination after 18 years. If every adult who did not have chickenpox as a child were immunized after exposure to the virus, a quarter of annual infections could be prevented. “Post-exposure vaccination of adults would also make it possible to reduce the number of hospitalizations following the disease by 31%”, underlines Inserm.
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