Is chickenpox more unpleasant than two injections?

[cngodltlbi]

On average.

Yes.

DS1 had about 4 spots, slightly raised temperature for an afternoon and was itchy for about 5 minutes.
Ds2 was head to toe spots and ended up in hospital. Itched for weeks and Still has some scars on his chest.

Go for the vaccination.

Yes, very serious complications. Hideous itching and unpleasant in mild cases. You also put vulnerable people at risk if you have it.

Yes , it's annoys me greatly that the vaccine is not available on the nhs.

Chicken pox is a matter of luck. Some children only have two spots and feel no discomfort where as one or two children each year die from chicken pox. Apparently there are 25 deaths each year in the UK from Chicken pox and 81% of those deaths are adults.

www.bmj.com/content/323/7321/1091

I imagine that most of those deaths are in people who had other health conditions. Usually in children chickenpox is an economic problem in that it means weeks off school (and unpaided leave for parents) rather than a serious health problem.

My son had chickenpox quite badly and was treated with antibotics and steriods. I chose to pay for dd to be vacinated. I can understand why the chickenpox vacines is not available on the NHS as they have enough trouble getting children to have essential vacinnes like the MMR.

DS was vaccinated against chicken pox. He didn't make too much of a fuss about the jabs. Best £80 I've ever spent...

vaccination wins hands down in our house. DD was vaccinated, no fuss at all, DS preempted me and got chicken pox at 6 months with hundreds of pox, one on his eye ball that worried the doctor quite a lot (but healed off fine, whew), some were badly infected (again luckily, the scars are usually covered by clothes, my friend's son has bad ones in his face) and then he got chicken pox again 2 years later (only lightly, but still itchy).

The only issue with the vacine is does it wear off in twenty years when your child is an adult. I am planning to pay for dd to have a booster when she is in her twenties.

I don't think it's as simple as that. By vaccinating you run the risk of immunity wearing off in later life, and chicken pox as an older adult is infinitely more dangerous than in children. Best case scenario, by far, is to have wild chicken pox infection as a healthy young child, conferring life-long immunity. Luckily, my DS had a nice spotty case at 15 months. He was in no discomfort whatsoever and has had no scarring. However, i realise we were exceptionally fortunate with this (maybe because he was still breastfeeding?) and for many children it's very unpleasant and can be quite serious. Personally, I would always take my chances with the wild disease rather than vaccination, but that is because I have a healthy, breastfed child who is at lower risk of complications. I'm over the moon he's had it naturally, but would have considered vaccination if he'd reached young adulthood and had not had it.

Chicken pox can be unexpectedly fatal because it gives access through the spots for things like strep A (which can live unnoticed on your skin) to enter your blood stream, you get scepticimia (sp?) and die - yuck!

I had one dc who had it midly, 1 hospitalised, 1 badly, 1 who thankfully was already on a course of super strong antibiotics as we had just discovered she'd had strep A for 18 months (drs thought it was thrush )

I wouldn't ever want a non-verbal child to have chicken-pox!!! My dc were breastfed etc etc. Sorry but 2 nights in hospital with my 11 months old being pumped full of painkillers and anti-viral drugs is not an experience I would wish on anyone.

I breastfeed ds until two and half years old and he still got chickenpox badly. I think that some people overestimate the benefits of breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding does nothing against chicken pox, there are no disease-specific antibodies in breast milk past colostrum stage (think two weeks post partum). My son was full term and exclusively breastfed when he got the chicken pox and my own titer had been tested and was high.

Mine had the disease mildly, and it was OK (though 2 of them went the full 3 weeks apart).

What isn't fully known yet is whether CP vaccination will resulting a change of the disease behaviour of shingles. Or if immunity will wear off after time at a different rate to disease-acquired immunity, thus leading to an increase in adult cases.

Get it when you're older and it's hideous, I had it at 25 & it was the most ill I have ever been.

There is a shingles vacine that is available on the NHS.

i would rather the NHS paid for children to be vacinated against mengenitis C than chickenpox. It would help if extra vacines were available through the GP rather than having to go to a private hospital.

As missPlum said, it's not as simple as which is more unpleasant now. Yes, cp can have complications. Serious ones are very very rare. There are long term considerations such as when the immunity from it will wane, when boosters are required, whether they will catch it as adults when it is more serious because you prevented them from catching it as children. There are risks with the vaccine too which some people are dismissive of while being overly concerned about potential risks of CP.

There are long term considerations about the vaccine

I don't think that there are any issues about the safety of the vacine as it isn't new. The varicella vaccine has been used abroad for years. I don't know how rates of shingles between the UK and the US compare.

This articles gives reasons why the varicella is not offered on the nhs. Its interesting that there is no evidence yet that rate of shingles increases.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8557236.stm

I suppose that the NHS has to consider cost when deciding what vacines are best to give to babies.

Every vaccine has risks RT - even the ones that have been around for a while.

Depends how much you dislike injections, doesn't it!?

me as mid-20s adult + 2 DC had a super easy time with CP. Far preferable to even one jab. Didn't feel the slightest bit ill with it.

DS2 was mildly miserable with CP (worse than one jab but not worse than 2)

DS3 was very miserable with CP (2 jabs would have been preferable)

ymmv

The vaccine is used a lot in places like the US.

Most children get it and have a miserable few days, but at its worst, chickenpox can kill. There are pros and cons to vaccination, there are pros and cons to catching the disease. However, the basic answer to your question is yes, chickenpox is more unpleasant than two injections.

I have very clear memories of the discomfort of childhood chickenpox. The only childhood inoculation I remember is polio, because they made me have that nasty sugar cube. (And then gave me another sugar cube as a "treat" afterwards...) So I don't think any jabs traumatised me as much as weeing over chickenpox spots which I had everywhere. Like passing cut glass, it was.

At its worst, the vaccine can kill too...

My one week old DS caught it very mildly from his toddler brother, and I was bf him. Never had it since, even when doing the rounds at nursery. I often wonder if he's had a bad enough case to give him long lasting immunity though, he really only had about half a dozen spots.

Does cp infection (not vaccination- being infected) confer lifelong immunity then?

I only ask as there has been an outbreak at DD's school and I can think two parents who say their DC have had it for the second time. In one case the little girl had it as a 10ish month old baby and was hospitalised with it, and has just caught it again at school (definitely, I've seen her healed spots!)

I always thought you would be immune if you'd had it, but apparently not?