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.)

I had my daughter vaccinated after a friend's son nearly died from chicken pox. He survived but needed plastic surgery to repair his face.
It was 2 injections at a cost of £50 each. It was done through our local NHS GP surgery.

It is a myth that we would suddenly have thousands of adults getting CP and shingles if we implemented a vaccination programme. Look at the evidence in countries that do routinely vaccinate and read their research papers. It is a cost versus benefit argument only and the number of children who die or are affected for life is not enough to be worth it in the monetary sense. Personally I don't believe you can put any price on even one child's life.

cd the problem with it being correctly in quotes is that that only works for print media. On the telly the 'says a mother' was quite easy to miss when accompanied by the pictures. And if you've only encountered routine CP then it looks bad. It is bad. But in amongst dissing vax they could have found time to give a few stats. 10 seconds.

There is a vacinnation against shingles to protect adults. Shingles is extremely unpleasant, but it doesn't usually kill or require hospitalisation. I had shingles earlier this year and It was six weeks of hell.

The issue is knowing how long a chickenpox vacinne gives immunity for. Vacinnating a baby may well result in immunity wearing off in someone's twenties. Maybe we would need booster jabs.

'If I was a receptionist at the usual busy surgery doing phone triage..'

Give me strength.

A nurse does triage when you arrive at hospital; 101 do a checklist (over a phone) of sorts which is a poor mimic for a triage; I have never met a GP receptionist who is medically trained - gate-keeper, yes; trained, no.

I count myself really fucking lucky that when I became ill my GP was a sole operator cheers Harold Shipman for seeing the end of them & that one on one continuous primary care whose receptionist knew me and knew if I was saying something was bad, then it was fucking bad.

I was on anti-virals, steroids, temezapam, shitload of other meds I can't even remember the name of and a drip. Had my GP, who actually left his active surgery and a reception room full of people to immediately attend to me at home and got me into hospital once he saw state of me, been some 4-6hrs later then I would (best case scenario) be dead; worst case scenario be brain damaged.

And no, I wouldn't have gone to hospital myself as whilst was ill to the point of trauma (& de facto not thinking straight), all I kept thinking was "It's 'just' chickenpox". Ignorance kills, fact. GP receptionist confusing themselves with medical professional, ditto.

NB: and yes, I had had CP as a child so had no clue could or would contract it when DS1 came out in rash; pregnancy depletes immune system and that is how I became so very fucking ill.

cdtaylornats I did read it and understand it's a quote from the mother. But the way the quote is used and the fact that the BBC did not clarify that the mother was possibly paraphrasing the doctors or that (as you mentioned) one doctor describing it as the worst case is irrelevant means that the entire story was misrepresented to be as sensationalist and shareworthy as possible. Like the DM.

Don't forget the chicken pox virus infects internal organs as well. This fact is permenantly and painfully etched in to my brain.

We vaccinated and the dc still got it!

Jin yeah, vaccination / prior exposure isn't perfect.

A good article which sums up the argument - www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/may/15/real-reason-british-public-chickenpox-vaccine-shingles

I was very naive in the early years of my twin's lives and tried to get them to catch it

When they finally got it at age 6 they were so so poorly, I was shocked. It has a reputation for being a minor illness. My aunt lives abroad and couldn't believe that the UK doesn't routinely vaccinate against it.

"We vaccinated and the dc still got it!"

Dd had one jab and then caught chickenpox before we had the chance to give her the second jab. She only had 6 spots and did not feel ill. Much better than her brother who had a secondary skin infection.

I agree with cdtaylor the BBC were quoting the mother who was reporting her memory of what a member of hospital staff had said. If it leads to heightened awareness though that's good. Not panic but awareness that CP can be nasty and different children in the same family can vary in how their immunity copes. One of mine (aged 4) was terribly ill, much like the BBC one, for the others it was mild.

My DC got chicken pox while on holiday abroad - in a country where you would assume (based on the stereotype) that the free health coverage would be worse than in the UK (and the doctors there had assumed that too).

DC had to see a paediatrician and was used as a teaching case as most of the doctors had never seen a case of CP. I got real bollockings from several doctors for not immunising - all children in that country are routinely immunised against CP.

The doctors were stunned and horrified to find that we don't immunise in the UK. One even went away and researched it to check what i was saying as she found it so unbelievable.

It was sensationalist, yes.
I also think it was possibly inaccurate.
I'm old enough (born 1950s) to remember lots of friends with chicken pox and my mum (born 1920s) has memories of even worse cases. This is not to defend a no vaccine stance, but this boy's mum has not got the life experience to say it was the worst case- how could she possibly know? How could the medics know? It might be the worst they had ever seen, but all that does is tell us about their own life experience, not the actual severity of the outbreak.
I had chicken pox and my mum tells me it was bad.

YANBU. It may have been a bad case but the reporting was awful. My daughter had a very bad case as well - she was in hospital on an IV for 4 days and nearly lost her sight. When we saw the GP he said it was the worst case THAT HE HAD EVER SEEN. There is a BIG difference in the wording here.

theknack I am sorry - butwhat exactly could the doctors do for the child? ...

What a spectacularly stupid post that was! Kids can and do die from complications of common viral en pox being just one of many. If you are worried about your kid, get them seen by someone who can tell the difference between normal viral illness and serious viral complications.

. Corey.

I've paid to have both of my DC vaccinated against chicken pox and I'm so glad I did.

It's the only parenting decision I've made that friends of mine have (openly!) questioned and I've felt compelled to justify why I'd be willing to spend that much money protecting against a 'mild' childhood illness.

A lot of people have no idea how horrific chicken pox can be.

Oh and yes, I get the thing about not seeing patients with chicken pox because of them infecting others in the waiting room.

We were told to wait outside and then DH went in to tell them we were here and we were taken straight through. Same when we got to the hospital. The GP phoned to tell them we were coming and needed to be admitted. DH waited in the A&E car park with DD and I went in with a letter from the GP. Within 10 mins of getting out of the car at the hospital we were on the children's ward.

willow my DS was exposed to measles in a gp's waiting room . A little boy that had just been diagnosed was sitting there, handling the toys and crying his eyes out. The receptionist and GP didn't see the problem.

When ds developed a very high temperature and runny nose a week later, the GP told us to take him straight to A&E (he was too young to have had his jabs). We called the hospital in advance and explained the situation. They weren't interested and we were kept waiting in the general waiting room.

The Drs however took it very seriously and we were seen quickly. In the end ds turned out to have a serious, but not contagious illness.

DD1 had it very badly, and was covered much like the boy in the article.

I got DD2 vaccinated. So worth it.