Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
General health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Chickenpox vaccine - yes or no?

200 replies

sayitwithme · 21/02/2011 22:22

Interested in experiences, thoughts or opinions, strong or indifferent, on the concept of vaccinating our kids against chickenpox. I believe it's part of the routine vaccination program in the States. Should it be offered here in the UK? It currently costs around £100 to have the vaccine in the UK - would you pay/have you paid? If not, why not?

Call it a straw poll if you will.

OP posts:
chocoholic · 21/02/2011 22:24

no, they have enough injections already.

3cutedarlings · 21/02/2011 22:31

Without a shadow of a doubt!! NO WAY, it is a mild illness (ok its a PITA for parents and the child) with very few side effects.

The only reason i can think of a vaccine being a wise idea would be if the child made it their teens without getting it, then yes vaccinate as its a nasty virus for an other child/adult.

Plus the NHS is in a big enough state as it is, without spending money on a pointless vaccine.

bubbleymummy · 22/02/2011 10:52

No.

silverfrog · 22/02/2011 10:53

No.

cjdamoo · 22/02/2011 10:56

Its part of the vaccinations here in NSW too I belive.

CiderhouseBob · 22/02/2011 12:23

No, because it's a time limited vaccine and stops being effective at the point where getting c/p becomes more risky and unpleasant, ie in adulthood.

Original poster
sayitwithme · 22/02/2011 12:45

ciderhousebob - but to play devil's advocate, immunity is not guaranteed if you get it naturally. I had CP as a child, quite badly as I recall, and yet was told I had no immunity prior to conceiving. On further investigation, research suggests that the younger you have CP, the less likely you are to retain your immunity.

OP posts:
Original poster
sayitwithme · 22/02/2011 12:48

3cutedarlings - I hear you. I agree. But, again, to play devil's advocate, it's not always a mild illness. Some kids suffer really badly with it (spots in their mouth, throat, up their bums, etc). And some get hardly any symptoms at all.

OP posts:
bubbleymummy · 22/02/2011 12:53

sayitwithme - in the few cases where people don't get immunity from having the disease what makes you think they could get guaranteed immunity from the vaccine?

bruffin · 22/02/2011 13:20

agree sayitwithme
DS's friend had a stroke when he was 6 - 50% of all childhood strokes are attributed to chicken pox.The majority get it mildly some don't and in our case my son getting chicken pox put a friend who had leukhemia in danger. We bumped into them the day before DS's spots came out.

I really wouldn't listen to a bunch of strangers on a vaccine board to make a decision. It is not the place to get unbiased opinion.

isw · 22/02/2011 13:23

Yes here, routine in Spain

silverfrog · 22/02/2011 13:26

bruffin, where is the place to get unbiased opinion, then?

my doctor doesn't give me an unbiased opinion.

neitehr does the nhs pages on this (or, arguably, any other disease/vaccine)

so, I read up on it.

and as art of that reading, asking othrs (whether friends in RL, or faceless pople on th einternet) what their opinion is, helps gauge a range of opinions

bubbleymummy · 22/02/2011 13:36

Bruffin, do you have exact figures from somewhere about stroke in childhood incidence in the UK? The figures I'm seeing seem a bit woolly ('approximately 1 a day' or 'up to 500 a year')

bruffin · 22/02/2011 13:37

Certainly not vaccine boards!
At least if you ask people you know at least you know what weight to put to their answers. On vaccine boards there are too many people who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to spread their agenda.

silverfrog · 22/02/2011 13:40

surely you judge on what evidence someone might be prepared ot offer to back up thier stance.

rather than the amount of time they spend saying it?

rightpissedoff · 22/02/2011 13:40

no

trust bruffin not be able to say yes or no

for bruffin it's yes, and you have to listen to me me me because everyone else is biased Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm

well duh otherwise no one would have an opinion

bubbleymummy · 22/02/2011 13:40

Not sure about that bruffin - I think you're more likely to mix in circles with similar opinions. Also, people may be less likely to be honest about something to your face. Ie. Could smile and nod in agreement with you in person but be thinking something different - just not want to argue with you. :)

rightpissedoff · 22/02/2011 13:41

oooh I've got an agenda

get me

like you haven't bruffin

MmeLindt · 22/02/2011 13:47

I had both my DC vaccinated, as we were advised to do so by our paediatrician. It is now part of the vaccination schedule in Germany, at the time I paid for DD but DS was covered.

Our pediatrician worked on the ICU ward of a local children's hospital and said that he had seen so many seriously ill children, and several deaths a year from chicken pox.

silverfrog · 22/02/2011 13:52

Mme, what info were you given re: efficacy and length of protection?

bubbleymummy · 22/02/2011 14:00

I find it a bit Hmm that your paediatrician saw several deaths a year from CP tbh mmelindt. Figures from 2003/2004 show 10 deaths over 2 years in total in the whole of Germany. So unless several of them happened in his hospital I think he may have been exaggerating a bit. The mortality rate for CP is less than 0.0025% ... I'm not really sure it could be considered a 'deadly' disease as such. It is obviously more dangerous for immunocompromised children, as most diseases are. However, I'm not sure that warrants vaccinating every child in the UK!

MmeLindt · 22/02/2011 14:00

Silverfrog
Oh, it was years ago. Not sure if I remember correctly but I seem to remember it being two jabs and the second being necessary to up the coverage. It was quite high.

I can have a look and see if I can find the information sheet but we have moved since then so I am not sure if I still have it.

silverfrog · 22/02/2011 14:04

oh, don't worry Smile

was just wondering.

do you wonder whether they need a booster? and when to get one?

MmeLindt · 22/02/2011 14:05

bubbley
It was several years ago, and he had been in private practice for some time. He was in one of the big teaching hospitals in Rheinland area so I could imagine that they would see the more serious cases.

I did not check on the statistics, but it is not just the deaths that concerned me. I personally know a child who was seriously ill after contracting chicken pox. She was in hospital for weeks, some of the time in intensive care.

Thing is, it is up to each parent to make the decision themselves, based on the information available.

I am glad that our DC are vaccinated against this.

MmeLindt · 22/02/2011 14:06

I have an appointment to see out paediatrician when we are next in Germany (Easter) so will have him check. As far as I remember they had a booster after a year that ensured that they were covered.

I will be researching this all shortly, as I think that they are due other boosters.

They will be 7 and 9 yo this year.