Chicken Pox Imunisation

[Daniel-Madge]

My youngest daughter was diagnosed with JIA at 18 months old. The advice we were given at the time was that she could not be given the chicken pox immunisation because it is a live vaccine. This means that every time she comes into contact with children at school with chicken pox she is put on anti viral medication which is an unpleasant addition to her two injections and episodic steroids. Doctors are now saying that they do want to give her the immunisation despite still being on her JIA medication which subdues her immune system? Does anyone know what the current advice is?

[tamsinr]

Hi Daniel

it seems that all hospitals have different ways of handling chicken pox. Charlotte was specifically vaccinated before she started methotrexate. It's two injections four weeks apart. You don't say what medication your daughter is on? However what I was going to say was that Charlotte has come into contact with chicken pox quite a few times and we've just been advised to watch for symptoms, rather than giving her anti virals straight away. Once she did develop chicken pox she was treated with acyclovir after the hospital had taken swabs and it was confirmed as chicken pox.