Chicken pox question

[tabbycat4321]

Hi all, we are due to visit family this weekend and my niece has just got chicken pox. My kids have all been vaccinated as we lived abroad when they were young and it was on the vaccine schedule there and have never had chicken pox. The question is whether we should still visit - my worry is that my oldest who is 16 has some exams coming up so is really reluctant to catch anything right now. Does the vaccine give life long immunity like natural immunity does? I know that boosters are not required but am not sure just how long the vaccines provide protection. Should we still visit and treat it as though they all have immunity? Should we just visit other family that do not have chicken pox but were still exposed to my niece the day before her spots came out? We don't see them that often and there will be some disappointment from the grandparents which is not helping the decision! Thank you!

I would see other family but not the niece that has chickenpox. The family that were exposed would still have an incubation period of 10-21 days before they would be contagious.

Both my kids are vaccinated. The 17 year old has never caught it but my 7 year old has just had it after playing with a neighbour who had it. I assumed he would be fine but came out in spots a week later. He didn’t have a temp but did have a lot of spots over his body and genitals which led to broken sleep. Apart from that he was well in himself.

My kids are vaccinated and have had contact with kids with chicken pox including our niece and not got it. However vaccines are not 100% effective so given the choice I would not have risked it. I was pretty annoyed when we arrived at the in-laws to find they wanted my child to play with our niece who was covered in pox!

The vaccines don’t necessarily provide the lifelong immunity that natural infection does. Frankly, they haven’t been around long enough for us to know how long they’ll last, though I think research seems to show likely about 20 years. It’s why there is some concern about lack of immunity during pregnancy for women who were vaccinated as children. Same as how I had to have the MMR again as an adult because I was non-immune to measles, which I needed to be for work.

More than likely, it will be fine, but if the exams or major revision for them are within the next, say, 4 weeks and you really don’t want to chance it, I’d just give it a miss.