Why varicella vaccine is controversial

Second, there are actually many adults who do not have regular contact with children — how are they going to avoid shingles? Third, there are antiviral drugs that work against shingles, if administered in a timely fashion.

The humane, and fair, answer is: vaccinate everyone, and repeat the vaccine as necessary, just as we do for other immunities requiring occasional boosters such as tetanus. And be more vigilant about diagnosing shingles and administering drugs early to lessen its effects for the people in whom the vaccinations were not sufficient. Easier, perhaps, to throw up your hands and proclaim it to be too difficult.

So here we are, in Informed parents, like me, can opt to go private and give their children the varicella jab at 12 months. We deserve better information, and better care. Jenny Rohn runs a lab at University College London studying the cell biology of infection.

She can be found on Twitter as JennyRohn. A safe, effective prevention for this nasty virus is withheld for surprising reasons. Spotty logic: using children to prevent shingles is questionable.

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These weakened viruses may cause mild symptoms of illness post-vaccination but protect against outright chickenpox infection. The first has a lot to do with the increasing severity of the disease as people age. It seems highly unlikely that UK parents would reject the chickenpox vaccine for their children while consenting to all the others.

These people would then experience more severe illnesses with a higher risk of complications, increasing the burden of chickenpox on the healthcare system. As such, it seems highly unlikely that UK parents would reject the chickenpox vaccine for their children while consenting to all the others.

Some scientists think that being exposed to children with an active chickenpox infection will provide an immunity boost to adults who were infected with the disease, reducing the risk of a shingles reactivation. While children with chickenpox will need to be kept away from adults who have never contracted or been vaccinated against the disease, adults who have had chickenpox are encouraged to spend time with infected children to minimise their shingles risk.

The hypothesis of using children as living booster jabs may not have a strong basis in reality. Several studies and surveillance data show no consistent trends in shingles incidence in countries that have introduced routine childhood varicella vaccines, indicating that the hypothesis of using children as living booster jabs may not have a strong basis in reality.

But there are also more fundamental ethical objections to this practice. A US study found that approximately 38 in , children vaccinated against chickenpox developed shingles per year, compared to per , unvaccinated children.

The first generation to receive varicella vaccines in the US is currently in their early to mids, and shingles reactivation becomes much more common after the age of 50, so researchers will need to follow a cohort of children who have been vaccinated against chickenpox and see what happens.