Children offer chickenpox vaccine on NHS

All young children from England and Wales will be offered free chickenpox vaccine by NHS from January 2026.

It will be given as two doses, at the age of 12 and 18 months, combined with the current MMR JAB that prevents measles, kanthamala and rubella.

A catch up campaign is planned for a few older children so that they do not remember.

So far, parents who wanted to protect their child from chickenpox varichela viruses, which causes red itchy spots, usually have to pay up to £ 200 privately.

Ministers hope that the vaccine -free offer will not only protect the youth from severe, although rare, chickenpox complications, but will also save the parents to take away from work to care for a sick child.

According to the Department of Health and Social Care, chickenpox causes an estimated £ 24m in lost income and productivity every year in the UK.

Health Minister Stephen Kinnok said: “We are giving parents the power to protect our children.

“This vaccine first keeps children’s health and supports working families they deserve.”

Chickenpox is usually lighter but can be very serious for some people.

Pregnant women are particularly risk because it can cause complications for both mother and her child.

Very young infants and adults are also more likely to experience serious illness than children.

In rare cases it can cause inflammation of the brain, called encephalitis, lung inflammation, called pneumonitis, and stroke, resulting in hospitalization and,, in very rare cases, death.

The disease is transmitted through direct contact between people, or through air drops in cough and sneezing.

Symptoms like the disease flu can begin, such as high temperatures and headaches.

The rash appears after one to three weeks of the exposure. Some children may have only some itching, red spots, but others may be covered in them.

Within a few days, spots turn into a blisters filled with fluids, which are contagious until they crust on the crust to make scabs that eventually fall and clean.

The announcement has been made when the new data has shown that the main childhood vaccines in England did not reach 95% faster targets in 2024/25.

According to the UKHSA, some of the five -year -old children, a dose of 91.9% MMR vaccine, unchanged from 2023/24 and at the lowest level since 2010/11.

Experts say that vaccination will dramatically reduce the number of chickenpox cases, which will reduce much of more severe people.

Dr, Deputy Director of Vaccination at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Gayatri Amirathalingam said that vaccination could be a “life saving” for something.

Professor Adam Finn, a pediatrician who was a member of the joint committee on vaccination and vaccination, stated that chickenpox is a “rotten disease” that is often considered “insignificant”.

“We, in children’s hospitals across the country, actually admit a large number of children with chickenpox complications, which can really keep them to do anything between a few days to change life,” he told the BBC Breakfast.

Vaccine means chickenpox “going to talk about the past in the near future”, he said

Sara, who is the mother of two girls, says that Tika would have helped her young daughters Willow and Mia.

Last year, he needed a hospital treatment to overcome severe chickenpox.

Her youngest, Mia, developed a “head to toe” and had a skin infection, which made her very unhealthy.

“He was just out of it … floppy.

“It was just a terrible situation.

“It was absolutely terrible.”

She said that she would advise her parents to consider getting the vaccine: “I never want a child or any parents to pass through.”

The virus that causes chickenpox – Varicala Zoster Virus (VZV) – is highly contagious, meaning that it is very easy to catch with someone infected.

The vaccine reduces the risk of obtaining it near zero. And if you catch chickenpox even after vaccination, you will usually have signs of miller.

Scotland and North Ireland are also expected to offer vaccines on NHS, but have not yet given any date.

Ringe, a painful skin rash condition, is caused by a virus similar to chickenpox.

Vzv remains in the body for life and can be activated again, causing ringworm, if your immune rescue is low.

People cannot catch ringworm from someone with chickenpox. But they can catch chickenpox from someone with ringworm if they did not have the first chickenpox.

It is possible but getting chickenpox more than once is very unusual.

A shingles vaccine is also available on NHS for all adults aged 65, whose age is 70 to 79 years and 50 years of age and whose age is a severely weaker immune system.