[Closed] Anyone had the chicken pox vaccine as an adult?

Don’t see why you would bother if you don’t meet the criteria to be in the recommended group?

Ive not had chicken pox and do meet the criteria, but I still haven’t had it 🤭

Yes. Early 30s. My bro got it as an adult and as I was exposed I got a shot.

My bro looked like he’d been at the wrong end of a clay pidgeon shoot. I got 3 pox.

Well worth doing.

I had chicken pox as a 28 year old. It wasn't nice.

Do you have £130 to spare?

Not as an adult, but had my kids vaccinated privately. It made them a bit groggy for one day & then they were fine. The NHS' reasoning for not doing the population as a whole is a bit bonkers:

If a childhood chickenpox vaccination programme was introduced, people would not catch chickenpox as children because the infection would no longer circulate in areas where the majority of children had been vaccinated.

This would leave unvaccinated children susceptible to contracting chickenpox as adults, when they are more likely to develop a more severe infection or a secondary complication, or in pregnancy, when there is a risk of the infection harming the baby.

Can't you argue that for all vaccination programs?

Chicken pox in particular really messes up adults that get it (called shingles). But in kids its relatively mild. As vaccinating everyone would be expensive, they choose to let it spead throughout kids.

Saying that my 3 year old got it this year and the pustules were horrific. Me or the wife had to take 5 days off work which cost far more than the vaccine would have......

Not much fun as a kid - had it, sores all over that bled and itched - had to remember not to scratch them, especially on face or body. Think both my two kids also picked it up from nursery.

Chicken pox in particular really messes up adults that get it (called shingles).

Close. Shingles is caused by the same virus it reactivates to cause shingles.

you can also get shingles without having chicken pox first.

Nope.

I had chicken pox at 33 event my kids got it. It was bad. 2 weeks off work, 3 days I have no memory of.

If you can, go for it.

The key bit about vaccination is it's not so much to stop you getting it, but to prevent spreading to others who might be vulnerable. Kids are the main candidates for both catching it and spreading it.

And yeah, can't get shingles without having chicken pox first, and shingles isn't contagious but you can get chicken pox from someone with shingles.

There is a shingles vaccine, but it's for over 70s and again you have to had chicken pox first.

Looked into this stuff before as I've never had chicken pox.

I had chickenpox as an adult.

£130 seems like a bargain.

I had chickenpox as an adult.

£130 seems like a bargain.

Me too, 5 days of eating and drinking nothing, lying on my bed feeling like I was adrift on a raft in the middle of an ocean - it was horrendous. I am one of the tightest people you could imagine, but even I would pay the £130.

When I was a child my brother had all the childhood illnesses, but I got none. I deludedly believed I was never going to get them. Then my children got chicken pox at 1 and 3 years old, no worse than a mild cold for them and I got it from them.

Just go and man up and have it.

i had shingles 2 years ago.  It was the most unpleasant 12 months of my life .....

I had shingles 2 years ago, tablets prescribed were over 100e at full retail.  Still a bargain, I d have paid anything.  I got it lightly too.

Plenty of people who have no recollection of having chickenpox actually turn out to be immune anyway (they've had a trivial set of symptoms and not really noticed)

It's possible to test blood for antibody titre, to see if you need a vaccine (say for NHS staff).  maybe ask how much that costs, if you can get it done at all ?