Furious re chickenpox

[Wigwambam10]

I am a TA at DS school.
Lunchtime last Tuesday I saw one of the kids sitting out ready to go home that is in DS class. When I asked his teacher she was really mad and said she saw spots on him as he was getting ready for PE and thought chickenpox. The teacher rang mum who said “oh yes I thought it was but sent him in anyway as he was ok in himself”. Apparently chemist has confirmed chickenpox

During the weekend I had contact with 2 mum from DS class who have both come down with chicken pox

Anyway last night my DS was not himself and this morning had woken up covered in spots. He will miss his nativity play, school Christmas party and all the other good things happening that week. I will also have to take today and tomorrow off to look after him as grandparents can’t help till Wednesday. It also looks like DS is really going to suffer as I think he has then in his eyes whereas this other boys dose was really mild

Livid is not the word. Ok he could have got them anyway but it’s a bloody coincidence. And to top it all off the mum who sent the boy in orginally is a stay at home mum so could not use the excuse she had to get to work.

God knows how many other kids have gone down with it. They have been reversing the nativity with 2 other classes so they have been exposed to it. Also to top it all off DS teacher is pregnant (luckily has had them). How can anyone be so stupid

Did the child's Mum know he had chicken pox when she sent him in? When my DS got it I very nearly sent him in to school. He only had a few spots and literally no other symptoms.

I actually took him to the GP as I was convinced he didn't have chicken pox and didn't want him to be off school if he didn't need to be.

From the OP, the mum said *oh yes I thought it was but sent him in anyway as he was ok in himself”

Why didn't you have him vaccinated?

The problem with the vaccination is it isn’t a life time guarantee and if you don’t keep up the vaccinations it is far far far worse getting chicken pox as an adult.

This isn't true. The vaccine hasn't been around long enough to know this. It's just one of the lines people trot out to excuse themselves for not vaccinating.

Everyone seems to have missed the massive drip feed that she is early pregnancy. If you really are OP surely yiu would be more worried by this than DS missing a nativity play?

Better to get it when young, rather than older anyway.

Better to get it when young, rather than older anyway.

Better to never get it. Just vaccinate.

Both my boys where vaccinated but they both still got chicken poxs. Though it was very mild.

There is no evidence the vaccine wears off. Countries who have been giving the vaccine for a couple of decades now such as Japan and the US are monitoring it. If it does start to wear off I will know long before it affects my DS and can sort out boosters for him.

Evidence did show that it started to wear off when only one vaccination was given which is why a second was introduced.

Vaccination not being a lifetime guarantee is not a reason for avoiding vaccination. It is a reason to top up if that is recommended. Do those of you that bring that up refuse tetanus vaccine because it needs repeating every 10 years?

Tetanus does not need repeating every 10 years. After 5 doses you are covered for life

Whilst vaccination I would say is a good thing, with Chicken Pox because if you fall through the net and catch it when you are older it is such a horrible disease it could kill you. Whilst getting it when you are younger it is not for the majority of children anything more than a minor illness.

I am pro vaccination but I thought the longitudinal medical studies on CP vaccine suggests that while childhood chicken pox is avoided there is concern that elderly populations who were vaccinated are more at risk from severe shingles than a person who has had chicken pox as a child. I'm sure I read that is one of the reasons CP vaccine hasn't been introduced here as a matter of course.

The elderly get the shingles vax on the schedule as well though so they are not at risk as they get vaccinated.

Heck i’m not even ‘elderly’ so I don’t get it free but had the option to be done privately significantly earlier rather than later. I was actually done below the indicated age but looking at the data there is no reason it would not work in my age group but as there is no hope of governments funding it for my age group there is no hope of getting pharma companies to do trials in my age group. Trials are uber expensive and only done in patient populations that are likely to be funded or it’s a massive loss on investment. Nothing to say it won’t work in other age groups though if you can justify extrapolation of the data.

I'd be fuming. Sorry that happened to you OP.

Too late for you, but for others reading I highly recommend paying for the chickenpox vaccine if the budget allows

YABU to be planning a pregnancy while working in a primary school and not to have got vaccinated. So is your colleague.

Adults working with children who are not sure they have had CP should investigate vaccination.

Your DS won't miss the Christmas events at school. Sadly he will be feeling too horrible to care.

But the child you believe may have infected him was infectious long before he showed any symptoms. Your own child may have infected many others out and about in the past two weeks.

@TheVonTrappFamilySwingers

I am pro vaccination but I thought the longitudinal medical studies on CP vaccine suggests that while childhood chicken pox is avoided there is concern that elderly populations who were vaccinated are more at risk from severe shingles than a person who has had chicken pox as a child.

Shingles is literally caused by reactivation of the chicken pox virus already present in a person's body.

Better they get them now.

I'd quite happily have traded a couple of days at Christmas as a kid for the week of torture and pain I suffered as an adult. Not to mention that the scarring doesn't fade quite so easily when you're fully grown.

People are fucking ignorant and selfish.

I was due to meet some relatives last year and SPECIFICALLY asked to be told if anyone was feeling under the weather as my DP was due to start chemotherapy the following week - he would have stayed at home if so.

That night we had a call to say one of their kids had erupted in chickenpox. Mum said she had no idea but had seen a doctor that morning as he had swollen glands and was uncharacteristically unwell. After I specifically asked so my DP could make a choice about his health. No fucking excuse, ignorant and selfish.

You shouldn't be out and about with CP, I agree, but as said, you are highly contagious before you know you've got them.

Where I am, it's vomiting bugs that's doing the rounds and you are contagious before you are sick. So everyone has had it.

I've had CP more than once. I was told by a Consultant that I was seeing for something else, that there are different strands of it. Especially now we've got more population movement/immigration. Which is why vaccination doesn't work. Also that it's a mutating virus.

I've had Shingles as well and stay in, just to be on the safe side.

StrongerThanIThought76, people just don't understand compromised immune systems.

I've been exposed and given all sorts, by relatives, who don't think that mentioning chest infections, matter, when I've just been hospitalised with pneumonia and my immune system is still low.

Even if you have the chicken pox vaccine are any of you aware it's only thought to work for 10-20years of immunity? After that, you can still get it (and maybe at a more dangerous time- e.g being pregnant).

I do agree though that the mother shouldn't have sent her child in KNOWING he had visible spots. However like others have said, it's got a period before hand of no signs/spots when you're quite contagious.

For anyone wondering too- I don't have children but when I do- will always do the recommend vaccinations (I'm not anti vaccine at all) but wouldn't vaccinate against chicken pox. It's easier to have it during childhood than have them vaccinated young, forget about it, then they get really sick during adulthood.

(Also wouldn't send my child into school knowing they were contagiously ill like that mother did).

If he was covered in spots yesterday morning it is likely to be the second crop. The first crop of spots come out a few days before but are easily missed. Ds had one spot on his tongue which I thought was thrush. Your ds has probably himself been infectious since the end of last week. He probably was exposed at the beginning of December. That doesn't justify the other parents sending their child in and pp is right, those exposed to them will probably get it on Christmas Day exposing lots of family members.

At least for you and the grandparents the exposure will protect you from shingles.

At least for you and the grandparents the exposure will protect you from shingles

It won’t, shingles is the original virus reactivated as the herpes zoster virus. It attaches itself to neural pathways, lies dormant and reactivates as shingles.

I'd recommend the chickenpox vaccination if you can afford it privately. Daughter had it at superdrug and was just about the only kid in her nursery class to avoid the last round of chickenpox. For us the cost was better then taking a week or two off work (and the benefit of our daughter not getting ill obviously ).

It's not true to say that you need boosters throughout life and your risk of shingles is greater than somebody who has had chickenpox. I believe the reason the UK government don't give it as standard is to do with cost and concerns for unvaccinated adults. It's recommended by the WHO and many other countries do give it as standard.