CHICKEN pox brings the misery of fever and itching but it is no longer considered a public health hazard and doctors will not need to report it anymore.

There are 44 diseases which must be reported to the Health Ministry (MOH) within 24 hours of someone becoming ill, and chicken pox is no longer one of them.

What you need to know What is chicken pox? Chicken pox is caused by the varicella zoster virus and is very contagious. ... more Possible complications COMPLICATIONS from chicken pox have been found to be higher in adults and children who are not the first case in the family. FIVE YEARS OLD AND YOUNGER: ... more

Notifying the ministry allows the health authorities to track cases and contain the spread of the disease.

Chikungunya was the latest to be added, at the end of last year, to a list which includes HIV/Aids, hand, foot and mouth disease, and dengue fever.

Chicken pox was delisted in January - the first to be removed from the National Notifiable Diseases in years. A vaccine for varicella zoster, as the virus is known, has been available for more than 10 years.

Contracting chicken pox also makes one immune for life, though one remains at risk for the secondary infection, shingles. The number of patients infected by chicken pox fell last year from 30,548 in 2007 to 27,200. The fall is because of the vaccine.

'The risk to public health is therefore low and there has been no need for public health intervention,' said a ministry spokesman.

Chicken pox was recently in the news when Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was infected and admitted to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) earlier this month.

After he recovered, he advised adults who had not yet caught the childhood disease to get vaccinated. Chicken pox can lead to complications such as pneumonia, and throat and brain inflammation.

The chicken pox vaccine contains a weakened live form of the virus and is injected into a healthy person to build resistance to the disease and its complications.

Dr Chong Chia Yin, Head of Paediatric Medicine at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said it should be given to any child above 12 months old, adults - especially women planning a family - and health-care workers.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.