Chickenpox Vaccine: A Parent's Guide to Preventing Severe Complications

Henry was rushed to the Royal United Hospital in Bath, where he spent 16 days in hospital on antiviral treatment, his parents anxiously waiting to see if his brain would recover. Like Diggle, many parents consider chickenpox almost a rite of passage for their children. But the varicella-zoster virus, which causes the trademark itchy red bumps and blisters, can cause life-threatening complications. While rare, happening in every one or two infections per 10,000, these complications can include cases of brain swelling or encephalitis, as in Henry’s case, as well as meningitis or other secondary bacterial infections and even trigger a stroke. Professor Benedict Michael, consultant neurologist at the Walton Centre, a neurology hospital in Liverpool, has spent more than a decade researching brain infections. He describes chickenpox encephalitis as “devastating”, adding: “It is particularly nasty because it infects brain cells themselves and it also infects the blood vessels of the brain.” Even with antiviral treatment, some patients may have lasting problems. “Well over half, maybe as high as three quarters of patients who survive will have a disability that has an impact on their daily living,” said Michael. But from this month, a combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine is being offered for free on the NHS to thousands of children aged 12 and 18 months. This brings the UK in line with countries like the US, Canada and Germany, where the vaccine has been safely used for decades. The vaccine delivers 93 per cent protection after one dose and 97 per cent after two doses. There are fears that levels of vaccine hesitancy in the UK, which has seen a fall in the uptake of all childhood immunisations, will mean parents don’t bring children forward for the jabs. Nearly one in five children started primary school last September without full protection against serious infectious diseases. No routine childhood vaccine in England met the World Health Organisation’s 95 per cent uptake target to ensure herd immunity in 2024-25. Uptake of key jabs are at or near their lowest levels in more than a decade. Just 84 per cent of five-year-olds received both doses of MMR, while coverage for other vaccines, including the pre-school booster, have fallen, leaving large numbers of children vulnerable to outbreaks. Diggle, 41, is speaking out about what happened to her son in an effort to encourage all parents to get their children vaccinated. “Why take the gamble? If the impact had just been those few weeks when he was really unwell, I would still think the vaccine is worth it,” she said. “But we’re almost seven years down the line, and we’re still affected by what happened.” While Henry, now 11, has recovered, the trauma of the hospital treatment and the debilitating effects of the virus have had a lasting emotional impact on him. He still receives support for the ongoing effects. His immune system was severely compromised by the virus, leading to a year of repeated illnesses and infections. His younger brother Freddie, who caught chickenpox from Henry, was treated with antivirals and is not eligible for the vaccine, leaving Diggle worried his immunity may not be enough to avoid another infection. The chickenpox vaccine has been available privately for years at a cost of around £150 for a full course. “If I’d known that chickenpox could change the course of our entire lives as a family, I would have absolutely taken up that vaccine at a cost,” said Diggle. The new vaccine rollout starting this month and is projected to save the NHS £15 million annually and prevent an estimated £24 million in lost income and productivity from parents taking time off work to care for sick children. NHS England said children born on or after January 1, 2025 will be offered two doses of the MMRV vaccine at 12 months and 18 months, while children born between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024 will be offered two doses at 18 months and three years and four months. Children born between September 1, 2022 and June 30, 2024 will be offered one dose at three years and four months, and the NHS is also planning a single-dose catch-up programme later in the year for children born between January 1, 2020 and August 31, 2022. Parents of teenagers who have not had chickenpox should speak to their GP about the possibility of a vaccination. It can be purchased privately but in some cases GPs will also put them forward for a jab on the NHS. For Jim Kirby, the rollout of a chickenpox vaccine is a key step to help protect other children and adults from what happened to him. Six years ago, Kirby was working as a teacher in health and social care when he developed shingles, a reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus which had lain dormant in his body since childhood. A small rash near his spine was followed by severe headaches he describes as feeling like “a really hot, sharp piece of wire being tugged from one side of my head to another”. He was sent to Watford General Hospital, in Hertfordshire, where he was diagnosed with encephalitis and meningitis. The virus had localised itself near his spine and travelled up his spinal cord into his brain. Now 35, Jim lives with a diagnosed acquired brain injury that has transformed every aspect of his life. He experiences severe daily memory loss and cognitive deficits so profound that he once forgot how to use cutlery. He can experience physical weakness and fatigue, and struggles with work. He has never received full NHS rehabilitation. “I am a walking void of who I was,” he said. “One day I was teaching people how to care for others. And then the next day I was a person needing care for the rest of my life.” The latest data indicates that half of children contract chickenpox by age four, and 90 per cent by age ten. Each case typically keeps a child out of nursery or school for about five days, disrupting education and forcing parents to miss work. Michael said many experts feared too many parents would believe online misinformation or delay getting children vaccinated. “The rollout of the vaccine is absolutely huge,” he said. “This will save lives and it will save a lot of children growing up with lifelong irreversible brain injury.” But he added: “We’re all concerned in the field with what we’ve seen over quite a few years now [with vaccine hesitancy]. It was accelerated by the pandemic, but we were seeing it before then.” One main myth was the idea, promoted by President Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, that children were having too many injections. Michael said: “If we were to take the human body and put it in a blender and filter the cells by cell type, we are more bacteria and virus than human cell. Our immune system is constantly being exposed to bacteria and virus proteins, it is responding to that all day long, every day.” Similarly, the idea of chickenpox parties he said should be “consigned to the Victorian era”. “If you want your child to get immunity to the chickenpox virus, why not get the vaccine which gives the same immunity with none of the risks of actually being infected?” For Diggle, the message is clear: don’t take the risk. “I would recommend people take it up,” she said. “Encephalitis is not the only risk that’s associated with chickenpox. It’s the one we know. But we’ve heard plenty of stories since it happened to us of people affected. “You just don’t know how something could affect your child.”