Chicken pox vaccine for 1 year old

[hmmjauso]

Would you? Have you? No idea what’s best!

Vaccinated both of my children. It’s on the childhood vaccination list in my home country so didn’t see why not to for my own children. Plus, it not only protects them but limits the chances of them passing it to others. It’s not safe for pregnant women, those with weakened immune systems or young infants to be exposed to it.

My DH caught it when he was a teen and missed three weeks of school. My niece and nephews caught it and the youngest nephew who was one at the time looked absolutely miserable while his cousins who were a bit older were fine. I have never had it and my last top up was when I was 16. Still have some immunity from what they told me when I had my bloods checked during pregnancy.

I didn’t for my eldest, mostly out of laziness rather than a conscious decision not to, and I regret it.

She’s now had chickenpox and it was mild so hopefully we are ok. However, it was unnecessary for her to have that uncomfortable week and my understanding (which could be wrong!) is that the vaccination also reduces the chance of shingles developing later, which can be very serious. I will feel very guilty if DD gets shingles badly having not had the vaccine.

My second will be having the vaccination.

There’s a great podcast called This Podcast Will Kill You which deals with a different illness every episode. Their episode on chickenpox helped me decide - though they are American and in America it’s a standard vaccine so their perspective may be different.

I did. No regrets. I'm pregnant and my daughters starting nursery a couple of months before I'm due and I just didn't want the stress of the newborn potentially catching it. It's also really unpleasant, I've got scars from mine so anything I can do to make life easier for her. Also the thought of being isolated for a week was pretty scary!

As for the cost- it's £140, that's less than 2 days in nursery which she'd miss if she got it anyway so 🤷‍♀️

My son's had the vaccine and I would give it to any future child too. I still remember having chicken pox when I was six. It was really horrible and I still have a scar on my forehead from it.

My 6yo had chickenpox and it was mild.

My 3yo had it, got strep and sepsis and his lung collapsed and he nearly died, we had to wait and see if he would be brain damaged. Otherwise healthy child.

In hindsight I would have vaccinated!

I would and have for both my DSs.

It's a routine vaccine in some countries like the US.

The main reason it isn't rolled out here is cause the cost doesn't outweigh the benefits in ££

Mainly because if you've had chicken pox then you'll be at risk of shingles in future. Adults are expected to be less likely to develop shingles of they're re exposed to chicken pox regularly via children who have the disease. So rather than giving chicken pox vaccine (££) and giving shingles vaccine to more adults (££) - they've decided to allow chicken pox to circulate instead.

A singles vaccine is available to certain people in certain categories on the NHS.

Likewise the chicken pox vaccine is available for certain people under certain circumstances on the NHS.

The is one question mark around lifelong immunity and whether the immunity conferred by the vaccine is as good as / lasts as long as disease mediated immunity. But everything I've seen in research papers suggests very similar reinfection rates between disease acquired immunity vs vaccination. But they've not been giving chicken pox vaccines for long enough (ie. A whole lifetime worth of generations) to make any conclusions yet. So it's generally said that you don't get lifelong immunity from the vaccine (but that may not be true), and it can be boosted if required.

I see the logic. I think it's morally dubious to let children get a preventable illness that could kill or disable them (ok, in rare cases, but my son was nearly one of them) so that older people don't have shingles. It's making children suffer to save older people pain, because the cost-benefit analysis says so.

Is the cost of parents taking a week or so per child off work for chickenpox taken into account, I wonder?

I know you're not arguing for the vaccine, @Curiosity101 !

We did it at boots. Would do it again

Yup, got DD done as she started reception at 4.

2 jabs at the pharmacy in Superdrug.

She's never caught it (she's now nearly 10, yr 5) and there's always bloomin' pox going round the school!

Yes I've paid to have both my kids vaccinated. I remember having chicken pox arpund 5 and it was horrible. It cost me £60-£65 a dose so around £120 per child but I would have lost more money in time off work if (when) they had caught chicken pox.

@fearfuloffluff I don't remember looking into the specifics of it but I doubt the economic cost of time off work is taken into account. Or rather if it is then it's not big enough 🤷

I'm not actually sure though. I will see if I can dig out the document/website that shows the decision making process though.

There’s no good reason not too:

The shingles argument is morally dubious and makes no sense since there is a shingles vaccine available

Yes it costs money but compared to 2 weeks off work and nursery, probably cheaper

The first American recipients are now in their late 20s so there doesn’t appear to be any issue with immunity waving

You don’t want to reach adulthood with no immunity so by not vaccinating you’re hoping they’ll catch it and it is at best very uncomfortable so if you have the money available then I don’t see why you’d want them to suffer with it

My daughter had the vaccination, chicken pox went around at school and nursery and she didn't catch it. I know a couple of people who's children ended up in hospital with complications from pox, I also didn't want to have to take many days off work to be at home with her if she caught it, we will vaccinate our 2nd child too once they are old enough.

I wouldn’t but I would go back in time and do it- nearly ruined my holiday!

I didn't but my daughter had a bad reaction to her 4 month jabs and at the time we would have been looking at the chicken pox vaccine we were working out how to safely give her her 1 year vaccines. She came down with chicken pox the same day she had her MMR jab. So I didn't need to assess too much

Had she not had chicken pox by school age I would have definitely be looking at a vaccine. My sister had it at 16 when she went through a period of being a moderately immunosuppressed she had a difficult time.

Couple of weeks off work tends to be more expensive

With two doses almost all children develop immunity. Even one dose leads to immunity in over 90% of children.

It is less effective in teens and adults though, so it doesn’t really make sense to wait until then.

This is a nice explanation of the effect of the chicken pox vaccine and why the NHS reasoning for not giving it doesn't make any scientific / logical sense. And the NHS explanation as to why it's not routine.

Partial quote from the NHS:
If a childhood chickenpox vaccination programme was introduced, people would not catch chickenpox as children because the infection would no longer circulate in areas where the majority of children had been vaccinated.
This would leave unvaccinated children susceptible to getting chickenpox as adults, when they're more likely to develop a more severe infection or a secondary complication.
It would also increase instances of chickenpox during pregnancy, when there's a risk of the infection harming the baby

The only thing missing from the explanation I linked to is the information on uptake of vaccinations.
In the USA I think the chicken pox vaccine is given as part of MMR (theirs is called MMRV). So if we look at the uptake of MMR in the UK it's 93.4% as of last year. And the estimated % of the population who have been exposed to Chicken Pox is maybe between 90-95% ish. I'm struggling to find lots of stats that I trust for that but it's clearly not massively different to the % uptake the vaccine would (theoretically) have.

So yeah... it all comes down to ££
If you give kids the chicken pox vaccine as part of the childhood schedule then you almost certainly need to pair it with giving younger adults the shingles vaccine until all the kids that were originally vaccinated are elderly and you can test to see if shingles rates have dropped. But both of those things are additional ££ that the NHS don't want/have to spend.

I'm just fortunate I had the option to go private for my two kids.

I paid for my eldest to have it when he was just over 1, and I will definitely get my youngest vaccinated when the time comes too

No side effects at all, and we have peace of mind RE outbreaks!

Yes, first child I didn’t even know you could have it. She caught horrific chicken pox and was hospitalised due to such high temps and discomfort and infected pox. It was awful, I thought she’d be scared head to foot but she came off quite lightly a few pot hole marks that are fading.

I was advised to get any future children vaccinated. Best thing I did.

It was our DDs first birthday present. We timed her other vaccinations around that day. Chicken pox is not an innocuous illness for some kids (hence why many western countries vaccinate), plus it's a long lasting illness for taking time off work to look after them

Did it, no regrets. Avoidable illness and cheaper than two weeks off work. We are privileged enough to pay for it. I wish it was part of the standard schedule. There’s been seeveral outbreaks at nursery and she’s not caught it.

Yes I had mine vaccinated and very pleased I did so. It can be nasty and also prevents them from getting shingles later in life.

Yes. It’s around £150 for the course of 2 vaccinations. Which is definitely worth it considering that chickenpox can be serious. The NHS reasoning for it not being on the routine immunisations is rubbish and applies to a population not individuals. I would just consider it as one of the many costs of having a child.