Chickenpox vaccine in UK

[ZebraF]

I've booked an appointment for my DD (age 2 1/2) to have chickenpox vaccination next week and I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about it. My gp said he had no knowledge of it and wouldn't give any information. Has anyone here made the decision to vaccinate privately and how did it go? TIA

It's a standard scheduled one for kids in Australia. My DS had it no probs whatsoever.

What an odd gp! We lived overseas and it was compulsory, and it's been fine, then got our younger one done privately. No issues other than one was a bit swollen at the site, and great now as their whole school seems to be down with it now and they are fine, instead of being stuck inside for weeks.
They do say there's a risk it might wear off in 30 years or so, but I think that needing to have a booster in middle age is far nicer than suffering lots of scarring (like I do) or shingles (like my mum did - said it was worse pain than labour).

Not especially odd. If it formed part of the childhood vaccination programme then I’d expect the gp to know about it and provide information. Since it doesn’t, I wouldn’t. There’s info available on NHS website I believe, and the clinic providing the vaccination will be able to advise the op.

I thought the vaccine increased your risk of catching shingles later in life? And this is why it is not routine in the UK.

dc had it
no side effects.
in other countries it's given together with the mmr vaccine.

everytime I get THAT email from nursery/school I go phew

The ‘increase the chances of shingles’ has proven to be false. Both my kids were vaccinated in the US. Some parts of the world where CP vaccination is common have almost eradicated it. We had no side effects here.

My son had it when he was old enough, and my daughter will also be having it in a couple of months once she is old enough and the mmr is out of the way.

I believe that if there were a national immunisation programme for cp, there would be an increased risk of adult chickenpox for children who weren't vaccinated. There would also be an increased risk of shingles in adults as a result of the infection not circulating in the community (and therefore not boosting adults immunity to shingles by routine exposure). However, both of those risks only occur if the immunisation were national. They aren't an issue for a single immunised child in our unimmunised population.

My daughter had both doses when just 2 in Superdrug. No side effects at all.

It can provide protection even after exposure, so I finally got on with it when there were cases reported in nursery. (I had been planning to get it anyway. Just hadn't got round to it!)

@hellsbells99 you don't catch shingles - the virus stays dormant and can come back as shingles.
There is some increased risk of shingles for people who had chickenpox as a child but never get exposed to it as an adult (but there is a shingles vaccine anyway, and not all adults who've had chickenpox get exposed to it again in older age anyway, so it's an odd argument).
The main arguement the NHS uses is that there's a risk to unvaccinated children when they grow up (it's safer to have either had it as a child or been vaccinated, it can be risky if you get it when old or pregnant). But as other countries would say (1) you can run vaccinations for adults who've never had chickenpox and (b) surely the point is to ensure that the vast majority of children DO get vaccinated, solving the problem.

Either way - these concerns for the NHS are for (a) older people who've had chickenpox and (b) children who don't get vaccinated. Luckily, by getting vaccinated, your child will be in neither of these groups, and absolutely fine!

This: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563790/

If I may summarise the worry is that until everyone is vaccinated (ie the last non vaccinated person has died out) CP and shingles will become a disease of the middle aged and elderly and this is where the risk of complication is higher. So it is about the risk to those currently not vaccinated, if that makes sense.

Ah I see other people have made the same point. In countries where the program has been running since 1995 like Japan/Germany etc in a few decades CP will almost be entirely eliminated.

I had my dd done at just over 1 year. 2 shots A few weeks apart, no problems with either

I find the argument about the increased risk of chickenpox as adults in unvaccinated children a bit odd. Surely that also applies to many of the other things at vaccinate against, like measles, mumps and rubella, but it doesn't stop the NHS providing vaccines for those!

DD had it done a month after the MMR, two doses, no side effects. Was the least problematic vaccine she's had!

I am assuming it’s a short hand for cost. So for the foreseeable future it is cheaper to not vaccinate and treat those adults who fall ill than to vaccinate and treat those adults who may be more ill as CP disappears from the younger populace. It’s a bit shortsighted but we all know the NHS is under pressure, so...

Go to Boots they offer the vaccination for £65

www.boots.com/health-pharmacy-advice/vaccinations/chickenpox-vaccination-service

Both dd’s had it at 2 and both were fine, no side effects at all. I made sure it wasn’t really close to any others vaccinations so their body’s weren’t dealing with anything else at the same time.

Chickenpox has done the rounds at school numerous times and both appear to be immune.

My youngest daughter should have had it. She does however fall into the small group of children who are considered to be at higher risk of complications. [ born under 0.4th, very severe failure to thrive and under ortho-oncology for fiberous dysplasia, medical advice was to delay some vaccinations and avoid MMR and hopethat herd immunity would cover her till she could.]

Sadly she managed to catch chicken pox before she could be vaccinated. She was really poorly, most of her skin poxed and she developed a bacterial infection on her face and another in her eyes.

If your DD is considered to have an increased risk of developing complications from chickenpox the vaccine may well be covered by the NHS.