Chicken Pox Vaccine Post Reply

[firsttimerSW11]

I did it when my little one turned two. She has never had chicken pox despite weekly announcements outbreaks at nursery. Personally I don't see why one wouldn't do it nor indeed why it's not offered as part of the vaccination programme - I think it's something to do with reducing old people immunity to shingles which is more dangerous to them than chicken pox is to children.
No side effects here either. I do have a friend whose son was in intensive care after a bad case of chicken pox and the doctor said he doesn't understand why all parents don't do it.
2 jabs at about £140 a job, I had it done at the travel clinic on Garrett Lane.

[Pod]

We got the CP vaccine due to a 6mth trip away to Australia where all children are vaccinated against it. There was an outbreak at nursery and we had already postponed the trip due to our baby's passport issues so getting CP would've been detrimental to the trip and husband's work out there. No side effects to note - got it done at Wimbledon travel clinic £80 x2
A Friend's child later contracted CP and was in hospital with Bells Palsy. My feeling is that whilst CP is mild in most cases, there seems an increase in serious side effects occurring , and as children get older perhaps CP symptoms are worse? Our GP stated that vaccine wasn't given out as part of the immunisation programme due to cost!
Perhaps someone else has some more substantial evidence to support the discussion??
Papingan?

[3littlemonkeys]

I have also vaccinated mine - I used Orbis Chemist on Clapham High Street. You need 2 jabs, 4-6 weeks apart @ £65 a jab. Mine didn't have any side effects either.

[AbbevilleMummy]

I got my kids done at the GP surgery on Battersea Rise. £50 per jab.

Also don't understand why people wouldn't do it. Least of all to save a week or 2 of sleepless nights, upset and potential scarring.

I had heard that it was due to be included in the immunisation schedule around the time of the false MMR scandal and so was shelved. Don't know if that's true or not though.

[Ettedja]

We were advised to have our older child vaccinated while on holiday in my native Australia because she was already ill so often and it would be one less thing for her - very grateful we did as her younger brother ended up on medications for several years that left him immunosuppressed. It meant with every CP exposure (quite frequent in this country) he ended up in hospital for immunoglobulin treatment. Every time there was chicken pox within the school he couldn't attend.

When he eventually did contract it he had come off his medications and had immunoglobulin treatment within previous months, thankfully wasn't seriously sick but has been left with three very disfiguring scars on his face. Insignificant compared to the risk if he'd contracted it while immunosuppressed but it's still not pleasant and I dread to think how he might have been without the immunoglobulin.

It might be a mild illness for most but it's not for all and you never know which category your child or their siblings might fall into.

[szerma]

I had chickenpox as an adult (didn't have it as a child) at the age of 30, was not great, and then a month later I started losing my hearing (I am now partly deaf in one ear). The (Harley Street) doctors never found the cause for my hearing loss and one theory is that it was caused by the chickenpox, as there is some research linking serious viral diseases with this type of loss.

Needless to say, we vaccinated our daughter (you are meant to do 2 shots, after they are 12 months old). It is routinely offered in other countries and your child will have 98% immunity. Even if they are in the 2% who still get it, it will be very mild. Also don't believe the rumours that they can get shingles as adults - shingles is the chickenpox virus in your body re-activated, typically when your immune system is down (I got it soon after the birth of my first child as I was so run down and unwell).

The vaccine is not offered in the U.K. A) because there are already such issues with people taking up the MMR vaccine b) there is this "herd immunity" theory that says if enough people (children) get it it protects everyone: if you vaccinate all the kids, then the adults who didn't get it as children will get it and it will be much worse for them.

Here is a great Guardian article that talks about it:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... ent=safari


The bottom line: if you can afford it, I would vaccinate! We did it at the Wandsworth travel clinic (by Southside).

[headshrinker]

Here's another article on why there is no vaccine on the NHS.

As previous posters said, the damage done by that MMR nonsense has made it harder to introduce new vaccines plus, without a shingles vaccine in place for older people, many people may be at risk if kids no longer catch it. All those spotty kids knocking about basically give an immune-boost to adults who already had chicken pox.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8557236.stm

If you can't get your kid vaccinated for whatever reason, I wouldn't worry too much as it really isn't that bad for most people. One of mine had spots EVERYWHERE but we just bathed him in Dead Sea Salts and dosed him up on Piriton when it got itchy. He came out of it without any scars.