To think BBC reporting of Chicken Pox case is.....

[NobodyInParticular]

....dire.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-36952432

This reinforces my view that it's becoming more and more trashy with lower quality reporting? There have been more and more sensationalist headlines and I've also read a lot of badly researched articles too.

This one is especially irritating; shocking picture of sick child + misrepresentative sensationalist headline "worst case" + lets launch a campaign = classic tabloid article formula. Very disappointing BBC!

I also find it irresponsible of the BBC to have used the line "worst [ever] case", given this is clearly bollocks (the boy did not die, that would be the worst case. Nor did he even spend months in ICU with organ failure / encephalitis / acquire brain damage etc. Actually, he had a lot of horrid looking spots, some complications and was discharged after 5 days and was well enough to go on TV a fortnight later, as far as I understand). I really do not think that one somewhat worse case than usual warrants a petition for change in NHS vaccination policy.

Surely a better headline would have been "child has quite bad case of Chicken Pox which prompts distressed mother to petition for knee jerk reaction cause"? Oh, wait, that's not very shareworthy !

(No, I'm not trying to start a vaccination debate, I'm sure there is a thread for that elsewhere.)

There was a doc on the radio who said that the vaccination isn't a good thing unless everyone has it. Instead a strain of super chickenpox will develop. He stressed for most children it is a mild childhood illness but it can have dire consequences.

Yes I know nobody it can cause inflammation of the brain.

cigars I am glad you understand. Its very hard when your surrounded by people hoping their dc catch this, and yours does and is very ill.

My 3 year old caught it and was fine, she was strong, well fed, and you would never know she had it, covered in spots but fine! Not even an itch.

My baby got it, and only a few spots but they were vicious, as I said she was poorly and a baby.

I agree with you OP. It is sloppy sensationalist reporting by the BBC and actually undermines the case for vaccination. My friends dd died from complications caused by CP and many other children have lasting serious effects from it. Whilst I'm sure it was scary for the parents then I don't think the BBC were doing their job properly if they left the illusion that this was the worst. It is insulting to the families of the real victims.

August do stop it. There is at least one thread on MN where a poster's ds had brain damage and permanent disability from CP. It's not picky to say I'd take 5 days on a drop over brain damage. Or death from CP related septecemia.

I think a lot of 'scientific' and 'health' reporting is irresponsible .... BBC should know better or perhaps there isn't enough funding or effort into ensuring that 'news' is correct.t reported.

See Ben Goldacre ...

My DS was in hospital for 2 weeks. CP are his bum, will and testicles. His gastrostomy needed intervention from Tissue viability. We had every urologist in the north west visit and he is now in a medical journal.

Two years later he is scarred all over and his bottom is so scarred that it bleeds and breaks down constantly and sometime he requires oromorph just for bum changes ( DS Is 7 now and disabled so still in nappies)

She knows nothing..,. We nearly lost him twice and I know parents who have lost their babies . If my DS didn't have a gastrostomy and be able to be fed and given meds via it.... He wouldn't be here !!!!

I agree that to describe it as 'the worst case ever' is not right. I've seen worse cases than that at work and those kids have been on ITU. However I do t believe vaccinating children who are otherwise perfectly healthy for it. The reason the NHS is reluctant to vaccinate everyone is because it massively increases the risk of adults getting it. Much more serious in adults and also increases the risk of shingles.

I am also shocked by people saying the bbc has gone down hill.

the bbc lost its way a long time ago and has not been balanced for many years.

Any news - that drives the message home is a good thing. The medics said this was the worse case they had seen.

the lady was on this morning and I saw her. She said she was so worried and batted off by the docs receptionist but when she finally got in, she said the staff were open mouthed with the shocking state of her son. The doctors and the hospital said it was the worst case they have seen.

babba so surely you are grateful for this to be publisized?

Or why dont you write to the beeb and tell them your story, to me the more people who wake up to the dangers the better.

ohtoblazeswithelvira

This item of news was up there with the "newsworthy" picture of the off duty Swedish policewoman arresting a baddie whilst wearing a skimpy bikini a couple of weeks ago hmm

Oh, yes! I actually thought of ranting about that one in my OP too, but decided against! I was appalled to see that! Who on earth do they have working for them!?

News reporting on the BBC website has gone downhill in the last couple of months - probably since the referendum actually. Ridiculous, click-bait stuff. If any mumsnetters know why this is happening, please can you explain? Or maybe I'll have to read Private Eye grin

Hm, I think it's worse since the referendum, yes. Started to go downhill before that though IMHO.

hopes thread won't descend into a chickenpox bun fight

Might be too late for that!

august - my 4 month old caught it right after. So much for the stupid myth that an ebf baby with an immune mother can't catch it. He wasn't as ill as his brother, thank goodness, but had bigger deeper spots that have left quite nasty scars. I still kick myself every now and again that I didn't get them vaccinated, but I didn't know.
My GP didn't know you're not supposed to give ibuprofen either.
I didn't know about the risk of encephalitis.

Hellish illness that so many people treat in such a flippant way. My eldest was bedridden for nearly a fortnight and lost bowel and bladder control for most of that time. It's hard to change a nappy on a child who is in so much pain the slightest touch causes him to scream like nothing I've heard before or since.
And yet he was one of the luckier ones.

Or how about journalists at the BBC do their job and report things properly?

giddy

no giddy you stop it,

its not a race to the bottom its a question of - do the general public realise this can be an awful illness and I would say no, not at all.

Even doctors, and as we know from this case, docs receptionists are all very glib about it.

anything that raises awareness is the bottom line here. Anything that wakes people up - to the fact, actually maybe your child is sick - really sick, maybe you should seek HELP is a good thing.

I was amazed by the sheer ignorance of the ladies in my NCT group, amazed by it. People are ignorant of the complications.

Whilst the BBC description isn't justified, I really don't think that it is fair to describe the mother as petitioning for a "knee jerk reaction cause".

I am sure that the mother found the whole experience very scary, and while her son was very ill she probably also found out that CP can cause death or long term/permanent complications. She probably feels lucky that he did recover so well (though I haven't seen her being interviewed).

She is responding to her recent experience, but she is adding her weight behind many people who have believed for years that the evidence for vaccination is strong enough to include it in the UK schedule. Her response is sudden, but the whole argument isn't new/a knee jerk reaction.

The question of whether to vaccinate against CP isn't new - the Joint Vaccination Committee have considered it and will be reviewing it again. It is part of the standard vaccination schedule in some other countries, so clearly there is a case to consider.

Its called making an impression Giddy.

If you want to get to nitty gritty of the report quality you have a case, but in this case I dont give shit.
I want an impression to be made, and I want people to see a dramatic head line and think
" wow, really> cp, can be nasty...lets pay attention"

I am sorry - butwhat exactly could the doctors do for the child? If I was a receptionist at the usual busy surgery doing phone triage (appointments on the fay for dire cases) would you particularly invite an infectious child into a surgery of people with compromised health?

IF I understood what the problem was it wasn't the actual CP but complications arising from it ... not like the dr would have the necessary drips ...

My friend works in Birmingham children's hospital and she sees children die or suffer long term harm every day from chicken pox. It is only a cost cutting measure that we do not vaccinate against it. When we have visiting doctors from other countries they are horrified that we do not vaccinate here.

Both my children had the vaccination privately along with the Men B. If you can afford it please get it. And I hope this petition works but I'm doubtful.

My dd had "the worst case" that our local hospital had ever seen and was also hospitalised for 5 days and put on antivirals and antibiotics. I think it was quoted as the worst case that boy's hospital or consultant had seen..not the worst case ever. Our gp said the initial spots were eczema, paediatricians at the children's a&e then treated her with steroid cream and sent us home having agreed with the gp that it was "some form of eczema" only to admit her 2 days later covered head to toe in angry red spots and temperature spiking at 39.6 twice a day. It was a hideous experience for us all but no, I didn't for a second think of contacting the daily fail or bbc, or wish she'd had a vaccine which may or may not have prevented it.

This is a very painful subject for me. Whilst I'm glad the coverage serves to highlights how deadly CP is, I'm pissed that in reality this isn't a 'how very fucking bad it can' case as much much more does need to be done to help people understand CP is/can be - quite literally deadly. And this doesn't do that.

I contracted CP from DS1 who had just started nursery and some selfish fucker thought it was fine to bring their kid in even tho had been exposed in turn I then contracted it from him. I was 7.5 months pregnant with DS2 at the time. It was one of the most brutal experiences of my life and both I and DS2 could have died (plan B was if it became obvious that I would die my life would be sustained for enough time for an ECS to save him, as at 34weeks he was viable).

My main take-out from this is from print media, and that is that yet a'fucking'gain a receptionist at GP confused her undoubted skills in that area with being a Doctor and did not pass on urgent call out for Doc.

I'm glad the child is safe, but no - this is not the worst case I've ever seen. It's not even the worst ever case I have personally lived survived from and my heart aches for PP who lost a DN

fay - sorry day

theKnack YY a lot of scientific/ health reporting being irresponsible. And YY to Ben Goldacre.

*can be -quite literally - deadly.

Oh good grief.

august - my 4 month old caught it right after. So much for the stupid myth that an ebf baby with an immune mother can't catch it

Mine was EBF too when she first came out in spots I asked docs to make sure it was CP, they didn't even ask me to go into another separate room I had to say to them - hang on, this could be CP, don't you think we should be isolated???

Then the doc said " babies lucky mum is EBF and its a mild case".
Two days later I had a floppy baby in my arms with a temp shooting up, wildly out of control. My DH wouldn't raise his voice in a fire to shout - get out, and yet even he was saying call an ambulance.

I feel very strongly about it. We had to get baby baptised, but had to move the date and the lady in the church kept going on about whether she had recovered because her GF had been killed from a child attending a family do with it, and he had thought he had it but never had. he died.

If you actually read the article - worst case is in quotes because it is a direct quote from the mother. Accurate reporting from the BBC.

The BBC reporting is mostly quoting from the mother and she says "Everyone's reactions in the hospital were just complete shock over how severe it was - the doctors all wanted to come and see this worst ever case of chickenpox."

So again accurate reporting. Don't forget most hospital doctors wont see a chickenpox case from year to year.

For those who say it isn't severe the child was on antibiotics, anti-virals and morphine and needs a scan to determine heart damage - so it might well be the worst case the doctors had seen.

Don't forget the chicken pox virus infects internal organs as well.