This vaccine was developed in the 1970s, licensed in the USA in 1995 for use with children aged 12 months and over, and is recommended in the USA for use alongside MMR. Some private UK clinics offer the single Chicken Pox vaccine, although to date this is not recommended for general use with children in the UK.
The chicken pox vaccine appears to benefit the drug companies more than the children. Perhaps one of its main purposes is to enable parents to avoid taking time off work. The eventual outcome of this is that the vaccine will push the disease into the adult population, and further weaken the child's immune system. No-one yet knows the possible effects of latent vaccine virus stored within the nervous system.
In the UK chicken pox vaccine may be offered to health care workers and midwives who have not had the disease. The aim is to protect newborn babies and patients with weak immune systems (e.g. those with leukaemia or undergoing chemotherapy).
First time pregnant mothers may be screened for chicken pox and offered a vaccine after the baby is born, if they cannot remember having had the disease. It is important to avoid the vaccine if you are breast feeding, and to avoid becoming pregnant for at least three months after receiving the vaccine.
A Varicella Zoster illness may occur after taking the vaccine. Other possible long-term effects are Herpes Zoster (Shingles) and Cancer.
The single chicken pox vaccine is called Varivax® (Merck) and contains live attentuated Varicella Zoster virus, cells from aborted foetal tissue, albumen from human blood, gelatin and foetal bovine serum, guinea pig embryo cells, neomycin, mannitol, sorbitol (an artificial sweetener), monosodium glutamate (MSG), lactose and amino acids.
Merck have also produced Proquad®, a vaccine for Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Chicken Pox. This contains live Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella viruses, monosodium L-glutamate, potassium salts, sodium salts, sorbitol, sucrose, human albumen, cultured human cells grown in a laboratory, bovine serum, hydrolized gelatin and chicken embryo.
IT'S IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN TO BE ABLE TO HAVE CHILDHOOD ILLNESSES SUCH AS CHICKEN POX. THE BODY IS ABLE TO MOUNT A HEALTHY IMMUNE RESPONSE TO THE VIRUS AND BECOMES STRONGER BECAUSE AS A CONSEQUENCE.
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