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As the title suggest. I'm unsure about this vac. I had heard that its better for the child to contract the virus as it prevents shingles later but I have not looked further into this yet. Any pros and cons would be great
Thanks
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HI Loula,
I had heard that too (also read somewhere about the prevalence in teens and adults getting shingles more so now, who were/ have been vaccinated with the CP )
Also the success rate of the vaccine, can't remember the stats but its not highly effective, it may reduce the severity of it, but I know personally LOTS of kids who have been vaxed and yet have still contracted it.
Thank you for your reply. My nephew had the vac and still got the virus. I'm so undecided as to what to do. Parenthood hey no one ever said it was easy.
DS has had all vacs to date but I always questioned this one
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I was always unsure on this one because it isn't given in the UK and the fact that it isn't one you have to give to get the vaccination payment almost kind of suggests it isn't as important as the others. In the end of the day I was lazy and gave it because I hadn't got round to coming up with a really good reason not to.
None of mine have had it. DD is just 18 months & I'm waiting for then CHN to contact me for it, but she won't be having it.
It was only new when DD1 was born & wasn't actually on the vac list yet. DD2 contracted CP at 6 months old, so they don't/won't vax her. DS I just ignored the time for it. I have had 2 health nurses tell me the reasons for, & my mum pushing me (to have every shot in sight :rolleyes:), but I just smile, nod & 'forget'.
Both of mine have been vaxxed - there was an outbreak of CP which was particularly nasty when DD1 was in kinder and some kids got very sick with lots of spots. A number ended up with scars on their faces from it. DD1 must has also contracted it. She had 2 spots, one on her scalp (the only reason we know it was CP for sure as the GP said that CP is the only virus that blisters the scalp) and one on her chest. She has a scar on her chest from the one that was there. DD2 didn't contract it at all.
I guess my point is that the non-vaxxed kids had a much worse dose than any of the vaxxed kids if they caught it and ended up with some nasty scars because of it.
I'm having my DS vaxxed. I remember getting CP as a kid, it was horrible - I had to be sent away to stay with Nan because my mum was due to have my sister and hadn't had it, it itched like crazy with spots pretty well everywhere including my labia and I wound up with a couple of scars, luckily no visible facial ones though.
Even if it's not as effective as other vaccines, generally as Nai says, if they do get it, they get a milder and hopefully shorter case. And by contracting the disease, you become prone to shingles later. I haven't heard anything about those having the vaccination being susceptible to shingles.
Having the virus doesnt prevent shingles! I've had the CP virus and two lots of shingles.
Moved to vaccination forum
We have had all 3 done. When DD3 was just under 18mths and hadn't yet had the vaccine the older 2 caught CP despite being vaccinated. DS only had around 4 spots and ended up with 1 scar on his face and DD1 was covered quite a bit but still considered a "mild" dose. CP was going around our area/school at the time and a number of children who weren't vaccinated ended up with very severe cases.
I chose to vaccinate for a number of reasons but my main one was that even if my kids did get a milder version of CP despite being vaccinated it HAD to be better then what I had when I was in final year of highschool...I had 2 weeks off school in the middle of exams with a very severe dose of CP and there is no way I would want anyone else to have that. My uncle in the 70's ended up being hospitalised as an adult with a severe dose of CP and I met a woman just before my kids got CP who only 3 years ago was hospitalised for approx 2 months with CP - She developed secondary infections and at one stage was in a coma! She was only in her mid 30's with 2 young children and 6 months after having CP had still not gone back to work because she was still unwell.:o Why would I risk doing that to my kids? It certainly validated my reasoning hearing that.
I'm curious to know how you know that the worse cases weren't vaxxed? Did you ask the parents/carers or assume it must be the case?:
It is true that you can get both CP and shingles but it tends to happen if the case of CP was a mild case. I was reading that there is an increase in cases of shingles in Europe which some dr's are attributing to the CP vaccine.
I won't be vaccinating DS while he is a child but may consider it if he doesn't contract it naturally (and no I would never participate in a pox party) as CP can affect adults much worse then children.
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Yes - I spoke to the parents as I know them all quite well so it was openly discussed:
Thanks for the clarification :D:
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Thanks I couldn't find it from my phone:
jamie got vaxed and got CP when he got it he also had a mystery virus which we suspect was CP before that i think it was GP said no
jazzy got symptoms of CP but no spots so the sickness before hand right after jamie got his spots she wont be getting vaxed
We had an outbreak of CP at work a few years ago - there was a mix of vacc and non vacc children in the centre, mainly because the vacc was fairly new at the time - so some had missed it/not had it yet, etc.
The chidlren who hadn't had it definitely had worse reactions and were sicker. Some of the vacc children did also get it, but their reactions were very mild.
We haven't had one child with it for years now, so the vacc must be doing something in prevention of it spreading around.
That is one i didn't get for DD.
I haven't really seen any outbreaks of it where i live so am not too worried. If she gets CP she gets it.
TripleJ - Thats one reason I haven't vaxed. When MIL was a kid she pent alot of time in hospital. At one point she snuck into isolation & was in contact with CP. Slowly kids out of isolation contracted CP, but she never did.
We talked about this when DD2 had her bout of it. Being only 6 months old I assumed DD1 must've brought it home from pre school. But DD1 never showed any symptoms of it herself. Possibly a cold/temp etc, but I don't remember now...
When SIL was younger, she also never contracted CP, even though MIL often had her around kids with CP (yes, kind of a pox party thing :dunno:). She's now 18 & has never had CP or the vax that we know of (given you can contract but not show all symptoms, eg. spots)
DS was playing with a little boy just 3 or 4 days before he broke out in spots. DS didn't catch it either.
So while I obviously don't know for certain that this is whats happened, I'm assuming the kids have possibly inherited a gene or something that prevents them contracting it, or for some reason just not showing symptoms. MIL described herself as a carrier.
I don't know if that makes sence to anyone else, but I think there's a pretty good chance my kids don't need the vaccine :dunno:
It probably sounds as nuts & as stupid as the look I got from my CHN when I tried to explain it to her, but thats my story & I'm sticking to it for now. Until proven otherwise.
My kids haven't had any vaccines so far, but the chickenpox vaccine is one I definitely don't intend to give at this point in time. This particular vaccine doesn't induce "life-long" immunity like contracting the chickenpox vaccine "usually" does ( it's not always 100%, but much more effective than the vaccine). The immunity can wear off about the same time children go through puberty, and contracting chickenpox after around 10-13 years of age in boys can actually cause sterility. If my kids haven't had chickenpox before around age 10, then I will probably get them vaccinated for it then. I'm not anti-vaccination, just picky-and-choosy about what I want to give and when.
I don't remember much of my childhood but I do have vivid memories of having chicken pox and how awful it was and how my poor mum had 4 kids with it at once and we were all quite sick. I still have physical scars too. It was something I wanted dd to be able to avoid.
I suspect she may have had a mild case of it but am not sure.
Im not a chicken pox vax fan either. The kids in my sons kinder all went down around the same time and were all vax'd.
i have scars from when i had it but i as 2 so i dont remember
I remember having a very full-on case of chickenpox when I was 4, I remember how sick and itchy I was and I still have the scars to prove it. While it's a mild illness for some people, others can get very sick.
My eldest DD was vax'd just after the vax first came out. There have been a couple of times when she has had a smattering of pox-like pustules, but no illness to speak of. One time was probably bacterial but one time was after an outbreak of CP at the school so who knows? Because she's been exposed to live chickenpox virus on several occasions since vax her immune response will have been strengthened and will probably continue to be as long as there's still CP kicking around in the population.
FWIW the effect of the vaccine on shingles rates has not yet been fully determined. Shingles is most common in ppl over the age of 60 and being vax'd or non-vax'd as a child probably has less bearing on susceptibility to shingles than frequency of subsequent exposure to wild CP throughout adult life to maintain immunity. Because there's still quite a bit of CP around in Australia that immunity (whether from vax or from the illness) is more likely to persist. So in terms of shingles risk, it has less to do with whether your child is vax'd and more with whether everyone else is vax'd LOL.
from: Immunisation Handbook:
Modelling the outcomes of the introduction of a universal childhood vaccination schedule for varicella has predicted a rise in the incidence of HZ (SHINGLES), based on the assumption that exposure to wild-type VZV(CHICKENPOX) circulating in the community boosts immunity.28 However, to date, multiple studies and surveillance data do not demonstrate any consistent changes in overall HZ incidence in the United States which has a universal varicella vaccination program that commenced in 1995.19,29 The incidence of HZ in children <10 years of age has declined, indicating that HZ rates are lower in varicella vaccine recipients.1,29
They don't even vaccinate against it here in the UK. So not sure if that means it is not considered a necessary vaccination??
This ^:
Dd hasn't had it to date, but I will prob give it at her four year old needles. Cp tends to get worse as you get older, so I want her to have some exposure before she grows up, even if it's only through a vaccination. I was secretly hoping she might catch it before then, since the vax is not as effective as the actual virus, which is generally mild in young children and offers much better life long immunity than the vaccine.
Sorry to hijack Loula but I wanted to ask Arcadia about the exposure to Chickenpox.:
Arcadia - I was just wondering if DS's exposure could be considered enough to ensure he doesn't get a severe case when he is older. In short he has been exposed many times but never contracted it. Or at least may have had a very mild case when a newborn. This Spring alone I have had at least 3 mums over the last 6 weeks ring to tell me that they suspect their LO was contagious last time we saw them. DS hugs and kisses all his friends and would definitely have got some good exposure lol! In fact in German, chickenpox is called windpox because it is so contagious it is deemed to be carried 'in the wind' Anyway now into our 6th week of checking for spots and so far nothing??
I think he may have got a mild case when a newborn but I cannot remember him being sick or having spots but a friend did bring her chickenpox infected child around (without telling me!!!) when DS was only a few weeks old so it is possible.
Could his amount of exposure be enough to protect him as per your theory?
I was exposed to contagious people many times through childhood and adolescence (my best friend in Yr7 who I sat next to every day, my step-sister got them the day after our parent's wedding and we had been together the whole time, and my best friend at uni who I lived with all got chicken pox and I didn't but was in very close contact during contagious periods) however when i was tested for immunity when I was pregnant with DD1 I didn't have any. i was really surprised as I thought I must have developed a natural immunity seeing that I hadn't caught it any of those times. I ended up getting vaxxed when DD1 did so we went through it together.
My DS has been vaxxed and my DD will be too. The vaccine does not stop all children getting a mild case, but I'd much rather my children have a mild case than get really sick - kids do actually die of chicken pox! Shingles is a reactivation of the virus that lives in a nerve root (much like herpes) which is why it is usually localised to a particular dermatome (where that nerve supplies). It's horrible, but doesn't necessarily carry the mortality of chicken pox in a child.
Those are my reasons. I had cp, along with my two brothers and my cousin, Mum looked after us all. We got lucky and it wasn't severe, but there are still severe cases around and they're horrid.
DS had it, and no reactions to it.
I got DS vaccinated for two main reasons.
First is that DH hasn't had chicken pox. And when you get them when you are older the cases tend to get a lot more severe. I really didn't want DS contracting them somewhere and bringing them home to DH, or having to send DH away somewhere for a week or two until DS wasn't contagious anymore.
Second was my own experience with CP. I got them when I was in second grade and tt was one of the most miserable times of my life. And this is saying a lot as I use to get really sick really easy, up until about the age of 20, and have had pneumonia (multiple times) bronchitis (more times then I can remember, use to get it about 4 times a year), strep throat (again use to get it about 4-5 times a year), tonsillitis (about once a year), dengue (that one was less then pleasant, probably only serious illness I've had though after 20), 5ths disease, Pittyrhiosis Rosea (think that's how it's spelled….not super pleasant either) other weird aliments that took the doctors ages and ages to identify because they are so uncommon, basically you name it I've caught it. Anyway, I digress.
I had a particularly nasty case of CP. I had them everywhere….In my mouth, on the soles of my feet palms of my hands (both of which are peppered with scars, thankfully I got away with no facial scars), all over my vagina (including internally), on my anus. I couldn't move without touching at least 10. And they lasted forever. I easily had the itchy blister stage of it for over two weeks. I pretty much lived in a bathtub of calamine lotion. I also got a really nasty fever with it, at one point I was hospitalised for a while (can't remember how long, maybe 5 days) because my fever was so high, I was hallucinating and everything, mum says I went into a semi coma like state for about half a day just after I got to the hospital. It was really touch and go with me for a few days and the couple of times I've tried to ask mum about it she's teared up and not been able to talk about it apart from her saying she was so scared for me and that they nearly lost me. So basically I am worried that if DS is unlucky enough to have my immune system and catches them I'd be devastated if he got them as badly as I did, and I'd never forgive myself if I could have prevented him the suffering I endured, by getting him vaxxed.
Thanks for all your responses it's given me lots to think about. Now I just have to find out as its a live vac can DS get it while I'm pg and around him?
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