A new study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the chicken pox vaccine, which was introduced in 1995, has cut deaths caused by the chicken pox to record low levels.

Prior to the introduction of the vaccine, the average number of deaths caused by the common childhood disease was 145 per year in this country. The number of deaths was reduced to 66 just a few years after the vaccine was introduced. For children aged 1-4, the death rate dropped almost 92 percent.

Overall, the numbers of children who contract the disease has been reduced as well. Last year, 800,000 children had a case of chicken pox in the United States. Prior to the vaccine, that number was estimated at four million per year. Approximately 85 percent of all children in the United States are now vaccinated against chicken pox.

'It’s really a very dramatic success story for the vaccination program,' said Jane F. Seward, one of the researchers on the study.

In some cases, children who received the vaccine still develop a case of the chicken pox. The vaccine is considered 80 percent effective. A second shot to improve the effectiveness rate is being considered but has not yet been introduced.