to think that if you can afford it, you should vaccinate your kids against chicken pox.

[Gluebingham]

Horrid disease. Some shrug it off, some don't. But you can vaccinate against it for around £200. Surely if you can afford it then why not do it?

given thenumber of people on this thread alone whose children have had cp despite the vaccination it clearly isn't effective against the disease is it?

The CP vaccine does make it more likely they you'll develop shingles later in life. I don't know that, and I've had DS vaccinated against varicella. Since I've done so, Health Canada (where I live) has decided that a second booster was needed for full protection .
I've just had shingles. Allow me to tell you IT FUCKING SUCKS!!

My GP actually told me to actively expose DS to my blisters. I did. He developed a few odd-looking spots. We just had his antibody titres checked and he appears to have both cellular and humoral immunity to CP. Yay. I love my GP. But neither she nor I have a lot of faith in the vaccine.

dad it is bad to swear if you swear dad will get a swear jar x

Mine were vaccinated, in US, they still got it but very very mildly, just 2 or 3 pox.

Crap, I meant I didnt. know that ... Not that I don't know that.. Time for bed, I think (nearly 11 pm here).

The paediatric consultant specialising in infections diseases that treated my DD in hospital after she developed severe and life threatening complications from chickenpox told us that he was fully in favour of vaccinating against CP. I tend to agree with him (and accept that I am biased due to our own dreadful experience).

infections infectious - sorry.

Mine have already had it and they had it mildly but it was only when dd1 got it that I discovered that you can only get shingles if you've had chickenpox first. So from that point of view I wish they could have had the jab.

As chickenpox can be dangerous to people with low immunity and pregnant women, then surely, it should be offered by the NHS, like rubella?

I only thought about it when my DDs had the pox, but if I had another baby I would probably vaccinate them. However the info I've seen says that it increases the chance of getting shingles when older, this is what puts me off. If I could see actual studies showing the reverse then I would probably go for the vaccine.

I thought that, if lots of people have the chickenpox jab, then it increases the risk of shingles in the general population. But not the person who gets the jab, because shingles develops from chickenpox lying dormant in the body for years.
Is that right?

but the risks to pregnant women are in no way comparrible to those of rubella.

More people develop complications to the common cold than chicken pox, yet this hysteria doesn't exist about the common cold.

this culture of being able to vaccinate against everything is leading to a society where we have lost the ability to simply deal with illness.

There is a vast difference of course between serious, life threatening illnesses and predominantly mild illnesses, of which CP is one.