has anyone's dc had the chicken pox vaccine?

[happynappies]

Was talking to my HV today about chicken pox - a couple of friends' dcs have had it recently, but touch wood my 18 month old dd has avoided it thus far. I was taking the approach that 'better to have it now than when she's older' and 'if she gets it she gets it' - and while not going out of my way to see that she gets chicken pox, I was also not being too avoidant of it either iykwim. She (HV) said that it is a horrendous illness, and I should not be so laidback about it, and should consider the chicken pox vaccine. I'd never heard of it - but she said it is avaiable at GP surgery - it is just not part of the vaccination schedule (yet) although it is in parts of Asia. I was surprised as I'd never heard of the vaccine, and wondered if other peoples dc have had it, and are there any disadvantages to be aware of. Sorry for needlessly long post!

Or any decision for that matter.

I suggest you direct the HV to this

I bet you they will start publishing deaths by chickenpox and various other scare tactics in the media and the advice will change.

Whatever happened to Birdflu? Seems to have gone quite since the Gov spent billions on the tamiflu vaccine.

Oh yes RM I agree. In the US it's described as a deadly disease ffs.

I don't know how they sleep at night, I really don't.

And the worst of it is they will spend millions vacinating against things such as this and yet there is no money for cancer drugs!

I wouldn't have even considered vaccinating dd1 (who's just had it, moderately, and is therefore hopefully immune for life).

But dd2 has a narrow airway, a floppy larynx, and anything that affects her throat is worse for her - so the thought of pox spots in her throat is pretty scary. She seems to have escaped, amazingly, as its now over 3 weeks since dd1's first spot, but this thread is making me (and dh) think hard about vaccinating.

I might talk to my pro-nature's way GP, if she thinks there's a case for it then we'll probably go for it

If you are vaccinated and you are still unlucky enough to contract it, it will be a much, much milder form of the disease.

I may even by immune, but the blood tests are designed to show immunity after having the disease, not from vaccine, which will result in a much lower number of anti-bodies present in the blood test.

I did a lot of research on the internet, there is a lot of information on the use and effectiveness of the vaccine in the USA where it is routinely given.

I think that it is purely a cost issue for the NHS and that they don't really care about the poor children or adults who suffer complications from CP.

I am happy with my choice to vaccinate DD, and that is what is is , my personal choice, due to my own personal circumstances and my careful consideration of the risks and benefits of vaccination.

It is deadly, sorkycake. Children die of it - or do you have a different definition of "deadly" from me?

The serious complications are rare, luckily, but I'll never forget a child I once knew who was one of the unlucky ones. She was a bright, healthy little girl - then she got chickenpox and was left with severe SN and very complicated medical problems. Even years later she needed round-the-clock care and with her level of SN there was no possibility of her ever living independently. All because she caught a common, "mild" childhood infection.

I think this is what tends to be forgotten in arguments about severe but rare reactions to common things. The complication rate might 1 in 10 squillion - but that 1 is someone's child. Next time it could be your child, or mine.

For that reason, to me, reducing a tiny risk to a tinier risk is still worthwhile.

Welliemum, i think that's a bit over the top. Air travel then is also deadly, and driving, and eating grapes, and drinking wine, and vaccine use.

That was just a response to your first point. Yes, it's very sad and of course I would be very sorry for that child too. You're right, in that it's a risk-benefit analysis, but I weigh up the risks and benefits and come to a different conclusion.

You did ask "why on earth would you want to vaccinate against chicken pox?" I also have a friend whose perfectly healthy toddler died suddenly from complications of what had seemed a mild case of CP, and the son of a colleague of DH's wound up in hospital on life support.

That said, I still haven't had my DCs vaccinated. But I think about it every so often, and if they don't get it anyway by the age of ten or so then I will get them vaccinated (although that's for different reasons related to how nasty it is in adults). But I can entirely see why someone would.

No, I didn't, but I wouldn't vaccinate. I think the previous poster was noting how, when a vaccine is produced and marketed for a certain condition or disease, the said condition or disease is suddenly said to be much deadlier than anybody ever thought before.

I wonder how compromised are our childrens' and young adults' immune systems, if complications are becoming more common: and I know what I'd ascribe that to (to what I'd ascribe that? grammer).

Sorry, that was addressed to sorkycake, although rereading I can see how it would come across as addressed to you (I just type very slowly)

I prefer my kids to just catch chicken pox. Getting the disease itself is a much better protection against getting the disease in adulthood than have a vaccine. DD and DS had it when they were respectively 4 and 2. Got lots of spots and were a bit crabby for a day or two. I'm sure it wasn't fun for them. But, they are protected now so I fell this is the best course in the long run.

My take on vaccines is that I'll get them for diseases which are potentially damaging in the long run. Things like measels, which could make them go blind. And I prefer the vaccines come one at a time. SO if they take the chicken pox vaccine and wrap it up into another one that already has another 3 or 4 in it, it might keep me from getting that jab. Bad idea in my opinion.

Suffitllama, grammar.

I've had the chickenpox vaccine - I certainly think the vaccine should be available on the NHS if you haven't had it naturally after a certain age, and particularly to women (as chickenpox in pregnancy is really nasty and dangerous to both the mother and the unborn child).

Remember, rubella is also a mild illness, but we vaccinate against it BECAUSE of the danger to the unborn. I don't see chickenpox vaccine as particularly unnecessary.

it was a joke.. as any fule kno

a sort of in joke really but never mind

ACtually, I would agree with that rubberduck. I think the vaccine should be available to anyone who wants it and certainly to adults. I just would rather my young children got it naturally.

I work with a guy who recently caught chickenpox from his young son. He was off work ffor two weeks and said it was horrible. He said his son't suffering was at most a tenth of his own. He didn't know there was a vaccine until he had the chicken pox.

I think it is interesting that when people weigh up the risk they so frequently treat the vaccine as entirely benign - as in "well CP could be dangerous with complications and if there is a vaccine then why take the risk"
But that presupposes that a vaccine is never dangerous - which is nonsense.
side effects from vaccines can be hideous too and permenant.
i used to support medical malpractice cases and the vaccine damage element was substantial. that is why the states and other countries have a mandatory compensation scheme.
By all means people should weigh risk and we will always form different views when evaluating those risks . But do not factor into your assessment that vaccine =no risk

Agree with what Pagwatch says, its part of the weighing up we need to do re dd2 and vaccinating or not for CP.

Interesting...some of the arguments about 'my child had CP and it wasn't a big deal', its what we all said about measles when I was a child. We all had it, no one I knew had any lasting effects, it wasn't fun but neither as chicken pox, as I recall.

But I've had both dds vaccinated against measles, partly for their own protection but also to protect the community from a resurgence of the disease. I wouldn't have done, if I'd thought they were high risk for vaccine side-effects, though.

No black/white answers, as usual, but I do wonder why the CP vaccine isn't available on the NHS, money apart.

Sorry, meant to say, re measles - my mother says she knew 'in theory' it could be life threatening or sight threatening etc, but then again so can CP, if less often. Its just we never met anyone who'd been affected that way, so she wasn't particularly scared of measles....diptheria yes (she had it as a child), measles no.

Wonder what people will say about CP in 20, 30, 40 years time??

i need to consider this vaccine for dc#4, as dh is immunosuppressed, but dont know anything about it.

whaen is it given? how long does it last? any side effect? is it effective?

Misdee - here is some information that may be useful
www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccineinfo/vaccine_detail.cfv?id=11

This is also interesting, from the RCOG
www.rcog.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=514

If you do a search, you will find lots of info about it. I carefully weighed up the pros and cons before deciding to vaccinate DD and read lots of online articles.

I agree, pagwatch - the absolute basic maths for a vaccine is that the risk of complications from the vaccine should be lower than the risk of complications from the disease. Or there's no point!

All the vaccines funded by governments and given as routine fulfil that criterion because governments don't care about us as individuals and are mainly interested in minimising the cost of our healthcare. They'll always go for the lower-risk (and -cost) option.

But I've also seen the other side of the coin to the one you describe, pagwatch, where people say "Well, this vaccine carries a risk of xyz, therefore I won't let my children have it so I know they'll be safe" which is just as wrong as saying "I'll give my children this vaccine so I know they'll be safe".

There's risk on either side of the equation and no risk-free option unfortunately.

Oh, I read an article by a vaccine expert recently which said that objectively, the NHS should do universal chickenpox vaccination (ie, at a population level the risks of chickenpox clearly outweigh the risks of CP vaccine) but they probably won't be able to introduce it because the only practical way to give it would be with the MMR and MMR uptake in the UK is too poor.