Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles

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Why giving children the chicken pox jab could give YOU shingles

By Jerome Burne

Last updated at 9:29 PM on 02nd March 2009

Children might soon be vaccinated against chicken pox, according to recent

reports. But some experts question the need for a vaccine against an

infection that's so mild - especially when it could put thousands of

elderly people at greater risk of shingles.

Chicken pox causes up to 50 deaths a year, 40 of them children, and it seems

the Government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is

considering adding a vaccine against it to the MMR jab.

But there is widespread concern about this. First because a similar MMR

super jab now used in America has been found to double the risk of fits in

some children.

After a childhood attack of chicken pox, the virus lies dormant in the

nerves until triggered in later life when it flares up as shingles

Also the jab has raised the rate of shingles among the old - according to

one U.S. Study, cases have risen by 90 per cent. Here even the Government

health watchdog, the Health Protection Agency, has predicted that a vaccine

could cause a 20 per cent rise in shingles cases.

But how could a vaccine for children make old people ill? Chicken pox and

shingles are caused by the varicella virus - after a childhood attack of

chicken pox, the virus lies dormant in the nerves until triggered in later

life when it flares up as shingles.

'Every time adults come into contact with children who've just caught

chicken pox, they get the natural equivalent of a booster shot of the virus

which strengthens their resistance,' explains Dr Welsby, an

infectious diseases expert who has just retired from Western General

Hospital, Edinburgh.

In the past, when a child got chicken pox their mother would invite

neighbours' children to a 'chicken pox party' so they, too, could become

infected and get it over with.

'What the parents usually didn't realise was they were benefiting as well,'

says Welsby. 'GPs, for instance, are less likely to develop shingles,

because they are regularly exposed to children with chicken pox.'

However, a nationwide campaign to vaccinate children against the disease

would mean adults would be exposed to fewer children with chicken pox, so

they miss out on this natural booster 'jab'.

While nearly all cases of chicken pox are pretty mild - a slight fever for

a few days and small itchy blisters - shingles is often a nasty condition

in the elderly. By the age of 85, 65 per cent of us will have suffered this

often extremely painful disease.

It begins as a burning sensation along the nerves down which the virus is

moving, followed by the rash and fever, usually lasting three to five days.

But in some cases - as many as 20 per cent of those over 50 - severe

pain will be there six months later.

40 per cent of sufferers will have long-lasting pain due to permanent nerve

damage, according to the Shingles Support Society.

If the virus reaches your eyes, it can cause blindness. If you have to go to

hospital for chicken pox, your average stay will be three days, but for

shingles it is 11 days and you are six times more likely to die.

Although the inflammation doesn't kill you, it can lead to fatal conditions

such as pneumonia, inflammation of the brain or severe bacterial infections

in the eruptions in the skin leading to toxic shock. Some experts put the

death rate from shingles at five times that from chicken pox.

Just how many cases of shingles a vaccination programme would cause is

disputed. Welsby says there could be a 50 per cent increase in cases for 30

to 50 years.

'Anyone aged between ten and 44 when it started would be at greater risk,'

he says, 'because they'd be getting fewer and fewer boosts from coming into

contact with infected children.

'Eventually, however, there would be fewer cases as almost no one will have

an active virus in their body to trigger shingles when they are older.'

One American researcher claims there are going to be an additional 14.6

million cases of shingles over the next 50 years because of the vaccine.

For eight years Dr Goldman was a researcher with the Varicella Active

Surveillance Project in Los Angeles. Then in 2005 he went public, claiming

the official figures for shingles were not accurate.

In a paper published in the International Journal Of Toxicology, Dr Goldman

claimed that since shingles results in three times as many hospitalisations

and five times as many deaths as chicken pox, this increase meant the

vaccination made no sense.

One solution is to vaccinate both children and the elderly at the same time,

which is what the Government's vaccination committee is considering.

Meanwhile, concerns are being raised about the benefits of the chicken pox

vaccine for children. The U.S. Vaccination programme cut the number of

infections by 79 per cent, with a corresponding drop in the number of

hospital visits and deaths; down from 100 to 20.

But critics say reporting the disease is no longer mandatory in the U.S. -

making it appear less common - and that those who died before vaccination

were very often already ill.

It's a point made by London GP Halvorsen, whose book The Truth About

Vaccines is sceptical about their use.

'A recent UK study used to support the idea that we should start vaccinating

found that in just over a year, 112 children had chicken pox badly enough

that they had to go to hospital and eight died,' he says. 'But one of those

eight was still in the womb and five also already had serious medical

conditions.

'In fact, out of a population of 10 million children in the UK, only one

previously healthy child died from chicken pox. It's tragic of course, but

is it really worth all the other risks, not to mention the millions it will

cost, to reduce those figures?'

'We don't know why the UK child died, but American research suggests some of

the drugs used to treat serious cases, such as antibiotics and steroids, may

make it worse, he adds.

There is another potential problem. It is sure to reignite the debate over

the MMR vaccine at a time when the Government is seeking to increase its

uptake and warn of a measles epidemic.

'If it's added to the MMR, doctors will be asking parents to give a

combination of four live vaccines at once,' says Halvorsen. 'For many

parents, the thought of that will be just too much.'

Some parents might also be concerned by what has happened to the MMR plus

chicken pox vaccine Proquad which has been used in the U.S. Last year a U.S.

government-funded study found children given it were twice as likely to

suffer fever-related convulsions compared to those given the MMR with

chicken pox vaccine separately.

The number of extra cases was small, about one more in 2,000, but there is

another difference between the two regimes. Proquad contains five times the

amount of chicken pox virus as the single dose. Whether that caused the

additional convulsions is disputed.

In the end, the decision to go with the vaccine might not be down to medical

evidence at all.

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General

Practitioners, supports it on economic grounds. 'It would only save a few

lives,' he admits, 'but it would reduce the pressure on hospital beds.'

The vaccination committee will be considering all the data and will report

later this month.

'The medical case for doing it is not strong,' says Welsby.

'The natural system is certainly very elegant with infected youngsters

protecting their elders and we won't know for sure if it is really worth it for

40 or 50 years. In the end it's going to be a political decision.'