A couple of questions about the chicken pox vaccine

[Kalypso]

My 20 month old DS is due to have the chicken pox vaccine on Saturday.

Firstly, how long will it take to 'work'? I realise that the vaccine doesn't guarantee 100% immunity, but wanted to get an idea of how long it'll take before it becomes very unlikely he will catch chicken pox.

Secondly (apologies, as this may be a really stupid question), but I'm sure I read somewhere that children can become infectious after having the chicken pox vaccine. Is this true, and if so, should I keep DS from mixing with other children (and also pregnant women) in the couple of days afterwards?

Thanks in advance!

Hiya
The vaccine will give some level of protection after 3-5 days. There is some evidence if you have the vaccine within 3 days of exposure to chicken pox you are less likely to catch it or get a milder version. Full 'seroconversion' which means detectable immunity in the blood will take 4-6 weeks.

As for your second question, its not silly at all! Although it is a live vaccine your child will not be infectious from the vaccine itself. However as you say it does not absolutely guarantee immunity and if your child shows any signs of chicken pox this is the disease itself not the vaccine therefor they will be contagious. (does that make sense?)

more info here

HTH

Can I ask why you are vaccinating against chicken pox? I've never heard of it being done before and wasn't aware that chicken pox was dangerous.

Lidl it can be dangerous and lead to complications in a limited number of cases. View in this country is risk is not sufficiently high to warrant vaccination programme (although this is being reviewed). However elsewhere (eg Germany , australia come to mind) it is part of childhood vaccination programme and I think in some countries you may even need vaccination certificate for school (Germany I think as we have a German speaking Gp locally that does these Certs for parents).

I had dd vaccinated after researching nd consulting with df (who Is a Gp) as didn't particularly like idea of chickenpox if she could avoid it (both dsis and I had it badly).

lidl, obviously I cant answer for the OP. However varicella is part of the routine vaccine schedule in some countries although not the UK. There are quite a few threads in the vaccine section that discuss the pros and cons in great detail. Like other childhood diseases, chicken pox is mostly a mild disease but can rarely lead to serious complications and in very rare cases, death

most recent thread

whoops, sorry gigondas xpost

That's interesting, thanks. I had chicken pox as an adult and although it was horrible, it wasn't life threatening, which is why I wondered about it. I would rather NOT have had it though

Hello all.

I somehow managed to miss this (having checked it a couple of hours afterwards and thought I had no answers!). Thank you all for your responses, hugely appreciated - PIMSoclock, that is exactly the info I was after.

After much deliberation, I had my DS vaccinated two weeks ago for the reasons stated by PIMSoclock, and because DS had a terrible time earlier this year with high fever after high fever (40 plus degrees), eventually landing him in hospital for a week, with suspected norovirus. I have actually removed him from his one day a week at nursery for a few months to build it up. He was missing so much nursery due to illness. Things have thankfully settled since then (touch wood!), and he has gone a few months without anything nasty, except for one bout of croup.

In light of this, I don't want him catching chicken pox, although I obviously worried about the possible impact of vaccination (at the time his MMR was due, I got him the single Measles vaccine due to his history of high fever - I wanted to take it slowly). He also has eczema, which for me tipped the scales in favour of vaccination, as I understand chicken pox can be more severe and scarring in children affected by eczema.

He developed a couple of spots on his face yesterday, one of them quite big. They are still there this morning. Tomorrow it'll be two weeks since his vaccination. He isn't running a fever at the moment, and seems happy enough, although his temperature was very slightly raised yesterday. Does anybody know if he is contagious (with the vaccine strain)? I am due to meet a friend today who has a toddler and a young baby, and I would hate them (or anybody else) to catch it. I kept him in yesterday and was going to review today whether the spot had gone down. It only has slightly. What do you reckon? Thank you again, and apologies for rattling on!