Why are children in this country not vaccinated against chicken pox

[Lardlizard]

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@funkaccino emm yes it is. An unproven vaccine? It’s a vaccine which is not only proven but highly effective and has been used for over 20 years in the USA and other developed countries. Weird concerns that it will “wear off” or somehow it’s better to expose your child (and those who come into contact with them) to a potentially fatal disease is anti vaccer nonsense.

It’s not “good” for you to get chicken pox, young or old. It can kill. Immunity from the vaccine is not worse than the disease, some people just don’t develop immunity. Stop spreading harmful misinformation.

Yes you are supposed to give it to at least 80% to get herd immunity but that’s the same with other vaccines.

Honestly, it worries me that anti vaccers are part of the reason the NHS haven’t introduced it (although cost is likely the main reason).

You're trying to sound clever whilst fundamentally misunderstanding the reasons people have explained. The vaccine wears off. It is more dangerous to get the illness as an adult. It's got nothing to do with fear of the vaccine causing problems. Blindly doing something to show you arent anti vaxx makes you sound a bit dim. You dont need 80 percent herd immunity for all other vaccines because youre not worse off if youre vaccinated. It is unproven because we dont know how long it lasts and we know immunity wears off and that chicken pox is MORE dangerous as you age.

As I understand it, the nhs is waiting (2021 I think?) to role out the CP vaccine until they’ve fully rolled out the shingles vaccine program. By 2021 most adults 70-80+ will have had/been offered the vaccine.

Have there always been these severe cases of chicken pox? In the 70 s we all had it and i don’t ever remember hearing about severe cases or hospitalisation.

Those who have had their kids vaccinated - are you worried about it wearing off and them potentially catching it as adults and suffering more severe complications?

SosigDog the risk to adults is to ones who were NOT vaccinated as children. If they roll out a vaccination programme to children there will be less chickenpox circulating so unvaccinated children may not come across the virus until they are adults.
One of my DC has never caught CP, even after close exposure to siblings with the virus so we have paid for a private vaccination.

No I was reading online and it said in the US they routinely vaccinate, which has led to a significant number of adults being severely ill with chickenpox because they catch it for the first time after the vaccine has worn off and it’s more severe for adults. Apparently the vaccine only offers 75% protection by the time you’re an adult?

Sosig, that isn't right. Can you share your info?

I don't think it is necessary. And to be honest when people talk about introducing it I start wondering about how dangerous the diseases we do vaccinate against are.

Surely diphtheria and chicken pox cannot be lumped together!

We paid for it, as did every single one of our doctor friends
My brother is a disease epidemiologist and he got it for his DC

Those PPs who are against getting the vaccination atm because it’s ‘unproven’ (which is nonsense btw) and those who are cutting and pasting the info from the NHS website to support not getting it
Will you still be anti the vaccination when it’s added to the standard NHS schedule..?

Cost. It's only just been introduced in my country last year because of the cost, but now they decide the benefits outweigh the cost and they're vaccinating all children 12 and under (it's assumed children over 12 will have already had the illness). I paid for DD to have it done when she was 4 before they introduced it but she'll get a booster when she's 12 as part of the programme. DS gets it at 18 months and a booster at 6.

My friend's baby (in the UK) has just had chicken pox for the second time and is utterly miserable with it, I'm glad my children are being spared that.

I've done lots of reading on it and spoken to a number of GPs and this is what I've surmised:

They don't give the chicken pox vaccine routinely in the UK because there isn't yet an effective and affordable shingles vaccine.

People that have had chicken pox itself rather than the vaccine have varying levels of immunity (depending on the severity of the chicken pox they had) and those with weaker immunity especially require frequent re-exposure to chicken pox to boost their immunity against shingles. I think the worry is that if the younger generation stops passing chicken pox around, the older generations will have an issue with shingles.

It's a sacrifice the smaller group for the larger type idea. There are a lot of us out there that had chicken pox itself rather than the vaccine.

From what I've heard, the vaccine gives a high level of immunity against both chicken pox and shingles.

I'm very tempted to pay to get my child the chicken pox vaccine as I think it improves all outcomes for the vaccine recipient. I wish it were given routinely in the UK but I can understand why the nhs has to look at the big picture.

My family in the USA have always been vaccinated and I always wondered why we didn't do it here. I spoke with my GP and my health visitor and both suggested if I was happy to pay that it was a good idea, so I had my little girl vaccinated just before Christmas last year. She just recently turned 3.
When I was a child my mum took me to a chicken pox party!

KB

There is a safe and effective shingles vaccination which is routinely offered by the NHS to older people
www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/shingles-vaccination/

www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/hcp-effective-duration.htm

The maximum they mention is 10-20 years protection. So it could wear off in your 20s? And “From the second to eighth year after vaccination, the vaccine effectiveness remained stable at 81 to 86%”. So a 15% chance of catching it when you’re older and it’s more severe?

19% sorry

sosi
The very next sentence after the one you cut and pasted says “Most vaccinated children who developed varicella during the 8 years after vaccination had mild disease.(1)” with a referenced study

In fact all the scare mongering you’ve posted on this thread is debunked by the information in the link that you posted

Is it that you read it selectively, or that you don’t understand the information in the link?

The NHS have been trialling the vaccination around us - my ds who is almost 5 was offered it at about 18 months. Unfortunately he’d already had cp as a baby and now has long-term health problems as a consequence.

Measles, whooping cough etc were all normal childhood illnesses once upon a time. So I think that argument re not vaccinating for cp is rubbish.

It is not because of any increased risk of shingles or the vaccine 'wearing off'. The vaccine hasn't been around long enough for any decent studies to be conducted yet.

It is routinely given now in most states of the US, some of Europe, Australia, Japan. All of these places have nearly eradicated chicken pox.

It's just cost. It doesn't kill enough children to warrant the NHS paying for it.

My eldest has had it and my baby will be having it as soon as she's old enough. Pox is at best unpleasant and at worst deadly so it's a complete no brainier for me.

I think it depends on the area you like in as many children are privately vaccinated where I live.

It’s expected to have to the same immunity length as MMR and whilst there is a concern about an increase in shingles in older people because their immunity is not boosted by being in contact with children with CP, this is incredibly being debunked by countries who do vaccinate and have done for a while. I think it will become one of the standard childhood vaccinations before too long.

I’ve done it and am very pleased I did.

My understanding of the nhs info is not that there are concerns that the vaccine ‘wears off’ but that rolling it out could adversely affect unvaccinated people who might get it later in life.

There are two injections for it a months or so apart and the second booster is to prevent it ‘wearing off’ in their teen years.

Unless someone has got some data about the vax ‘wearing off’?

You can ger shingles as an adult just like you can if you have CP.

I’m not scare mongering. I have questions and would like information so I can decide whether to get my DC vaccinated. My question was whether vaccinated children who don’t catch chicken pox, are at risk of catching it very severely as adults because the vaccine wears off. I’m not concerned about what happens in the next 8 years. I’m concerned about what happens in 20/30/50 years.

sosi

That isn’t how vaccines work or else we would have adults catching severe cases of measles, mumps and everything else they have been vaccinated against as children

Your earlier posts said you had ‘read things’ which suggested there was evidence of adults catching worse CP as adults which is scaremongering
Especially when the link which you claim says this actually says the opposite

There is nothing wrong with posting ‘sorry, I’m not remotely scientific so don’t understand what this means’ but there is a LOT wrong with pretending you understand it when you don’t, and then spreading alarm with your posts

Preach, tenbob

It kills something like 6 children a year in the uk

I'd like to know how many healthy children die from flu every year in the UK seeing as they encourage parents to give their children the flu vaccine?