To hunt down these bastards who exposed my son to chicken pox

The US, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea all have universal chick pox vaccination. Also many European countries ( UK and France are two that don't but many do)

If you can tell others that their priorities are wrong then yes you are privileged because it means you have a choice. Many dont.

I’ve posted upthread a little in more detail.

For the two stage vaccine in the UK it’s around £450.

How does the CP vaccine prevent shingles? I thought you'd be at the same risk as someone who caught CP "in the wild" as they say.

That was a theory which doesn't appear to have actually played out in the countries that do vaccinate. Also it's incredibly short sighted - makes much more sense to bite the bullet and start vaccinating so you don't have future generations at risk of shingles as well. And you can use the shingles vaccinate for the older generations during the transition period.

Where CP causes more serious illness there is usually an underlying cause or vulnerability. For the vast majority of children chickenpox is mild and catching it naturally is thought to build a better, longer lasting immunity than with vaccination - which by the way, does not give complete immunity to actually catching the disease, but reduces the chance of passing it on. The UK doesn’t vaccinate routinely, partly for this reason and partly because currently, expert thinking is that vaccination can actually be counter productive with CP.

When you get chickenpox as a child, the DNA stays in nerve cells, giving it the capability of reactivating years later as shingles. But being exposed to children carrying the virus later in life is thought to have a protective effect, exposing people to small doses of the virus which act as a booster to the immune system and help to prevent the chickenpox DNA in cells from flaring up again.

One of the concerns is that if most children received a chickenpox vaccine, the disease would no longer circulate in the population to the same extent and that booster effect would be removed, possibly causing adult immunity to wane faster and leading to more shingles cases.

There is ongoing research to suggest that the anticipated rise in shingles cases hasn’t happened in countries who routinely vaccinate against CP and vaccine experts in the UK are still debating the best way of introducing a vaccine into existing childhood immunisation programme - the JCVI have recommended adding it to the existing MMR vaccine, but this gives a slightly higher risk of convulsions, so for now the single vaccine remains available privately by choice. So the question of whether or not to vaccinate isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

In my country the shingles vaccine is recommended for people over 50 and it is free for 12 months after somebody turns 65 (and for some younger or older people with certain medical conditions. I chose to pay privately to have it and it costs, converting into sterling, £280-370 to have it privately in my country. No idea what they charge in the UK.

The only reason it isn't covered on the NHS is cost cutting. Most developed countries vaccinate against chicken pox as a standard part of childhood vaccinations. Not only does it prevent rare but life threatening complications of chicken pox but also prevents shingles later in life. I was shocked to hear about children getting chicken pox in this day as a common occurrence, haven't heard of anyone getting it in my country for years and years. And all those children who contracted chicken pox now grow up with the risk of shingles hanging over their head.

Oh ok I get it now-thanks for clarifying. That's really interesting, feel like I could go down a rabbit hole reading up on all this stuff!

You can get the shingles vaccine the year you hit 65 now. And for those who have certain autoimmune diseases the vaccine is offered at age 50.

Chickenpox parties were a thing in my day. A child would get it and parents of other kids would deliberately expose them to the virus so they would get it over with early and have the immunity. In the main, chickenpox is a mild disease and the vaccine isn’t on the schedule because it’s considered better for the child to develop a natural immunity, which for most is lifelong.

Aw op I can see how this
is so upsetting for your son. To add to it that it wasn't just bad luck but another parent being irresponsible makes it worse.

As others have said, I am sure he will be fine. It takes longer than the first week to find the kids he will really get along with. But I understand that he will be worrying.

Another positive is that him being year 7 you won't have to mix in the playground with bitchy Mum's as sadly seen on your thread. Some people are horrible.

When does he start back OP? In our county it isn't until this Wednesday. He only has to isolate until there are no new pox forming and the scabs are healed. Baths with a stocking/tights filled with oats and epsom salts really help them heal up. Hopefully he won't need too long off.
He will settle in to school. It's not ideal but the other kids aren't just going to shut him out because he's a few days late. Just encourage him to put himself out there and he'll soon catch up

When my dd got them she had just a few spots on the Wednesday, covered head to toe by Thursday and tbh was about healing up by Friday and could probably have gotten away with going back to school. The Friday was her birthday though (yes also terrible timing for us!) so we were glad of the excuse to stay off. He might not have to stay off as long as you think though is my point.

It sucks and you're totally right to be pissed at the family but it is what it is. Not excusing this poor decision but he was going to get it eventually. It's a very contagious disease and people are most infectious before the spots even appear. Half my daughter's class had caught it within a few days of one kid having it.

I tried like mad to get my dd vaccinated when I realised it was going round her class. I couldn't find anywhere in her area that had any available so I don't think it's as easy to obtain as all that. I don't really get why you're being so berated for not vaccinating him. However, your situation has given me food for thought and I think if I had any more kids I would have it done if they hadn't had it by age 5. No point playing shouldawouldacoulda though you weren't to forsee him getting it at such an inconvenient time.

@littleredbumblebee What is far more of a worry than chicken pox is shingles when he is older. The wretched virus will be forever in his body now, holed up in a nerve root.

Shingles is absolutely agonising.

NHS won't vaccinate the under 70's for it, either.

It's awful to see spotty children about- Chicken pox is very catching.

Hope your son feels better soon .

I had my DD vaccinated againt it after she turned 1 and she still caught it badly about 6 months after. I felt so robbed!! Payed £150 to minimise disruption of life but yet she was full of blistering pox by day 7 and was down for at least 2 weeks.

so OP, yes its shit timing but better now than older when CP can be much worse. Hope he feels better soon.

It was inconsiderate of those parents and certainly an inconvenient time to have chicken pox but at least it'll be over and done with.

The problem with actually infecting children with chicken pox is that you don't get it over with because many years later it can emerge as shingles which can, depending on the location, be absolutely awful. And it can come back more than once because you never really clear the virus and it lives in your body waiting for another chance to attack. Far better to be vaccinated and never get chicken pox in the first place which I personally remember as being very unpleasant as a child and I was lucky enough not to scar. (According to the specialist it's not so much scratching the spots that will make you scar but rather the depth of the spots.) I have had the very expensive anti-shingles vaccine and it doesn't have near the protectiveness of the chicken pox vaccine but I'd do anything to reduce the chances of an another attack of shingles.

We left it to late to vaccinate my eldest son because it started at his pre-school and he was infected before the vaccine took effect. He has had one attack of shingles in his teens. We managed to vaccinate the other one in time.

Both my children were vaccinated on time and still got the chicken pox years later... vaccination helps just like contraception but it's not a 100%

Of course they are selfish. Beyond selfish.

Cp can kill. There is a poster on Mumsnet who lost their child to it.

There is no excuse for such ignorance.

Sorry to hear about your DS missing the start of secondary school. First day for mine today and it’s been a big thing here for months, so I understand how unsettling it must be.

i think chicken pox is a weird one, because it’s not on the vaccine schedule and people have wildly varying approaches. Chicken pox was on my radar as I’d had it badly several times as I kid, and I had family members who suffered from shingles. I’d intended to get DS vaccinated but he caught it the summer before school at nursery. He had a very bad bout and scaring afterwards - can still see the silvery skin scars each summer as his skins tans: He was kept at home throughout even though I almost lost my job at the time juggling childcare. I think other parents have more of a laissez faire approach if they’ve not had children with severe outbreaks and/or logistics haven’t been an issue.

I’d like to see CP added to the vaccine schedule and treated more seriously by health professionals including more of a discourse in expectations when infectious.

hope your DS makes up for lost time soon.

I had the vaccine ( x2 as directed at the time)

I still caught it so best not presume she won't.

To those saying “why didn’t you get the vaccine?????” - not all children can get the vaccine (mine is immunocompromised) and I rely on other people not being selfish arseholes exposing their contagious children to people who are vulnerable.

It’s not always as easy as “get the vaccine”.

So perhaps set money aside week by week beginning when your child is born and when your piggy bank reaches £150 you get him vaccinated?