Call for all children to get four-in-one jab to tackle chickenpox

They claim routine vaccination in a four-in-one shot is the 'only realistic way of preventing deaths and severe complications' from the virus.

But campaigners believe the vaccine might only delay the age at which people catch the illness, which could actually increase the number of complications in the longer term.

Vaccination for children has been introduced in the U.S., Canada and Australia, but in the UK only healthcare workers and others at risk are routinely immunised.

The research findings, reported in the Archives of Disease in Childhood medical journal, come after paediatricians in the UK and Ireland monitored 112 children admitted to hospital with severe complications resulting from chickenpox. Their average age was three years.

The complications included septic shock, pneumonia and encephalitis, as well as uncoordinated movement (ataxia), toxic shock syndrome and 'flesh eating' bacterial infection.

Six children died and four out of ten survivors had continuing problems.

Most of these children were healthy before they contracted the virus, say the authors.

The simplest solution would be to combine a chickenpox, or varicella, vaccine with the measles, mumps and rubella jab, using the newly licensed MMRV vaccine, it is claimed.

Professor Adam Finn, of the Department of Clinical Science at South Bristol, University of Bristol, who led the study, said while chickenpox is often seen as an inevitable childhood illness, this ignores the associated dangers, including infection, scarring and even death.

However, London GP Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth About Vaccines, said chickenpox was a benign infection for the vast majority of healthy children.

"It's not a very effective vaccine and the danger is that it will postpone the illness until adulthood, when its effects start to wane," he said.

"Adults over 15 who catch chickenpox are ten times more likely to die than a child, and those over 50 are 100 times more likely to die."

Since routine vaccination was introduced in the U.S. there has been a 90 per cent increase in shingles, the related adult infection, which is acknowledged by the researchers, he added.