UPDATES:WHAT DOCTORS DO KNOW ABOUT CHICKENPOX JABS

Although policy makers in the US recommend universal vaccination against chickenpox for children over one year old, a modest survey of community doctors in Rochester, New York, suggests that general practitioners don’t always agree with this policy.

In this study, a third of the doctors never offered the vaccine to the children in their care. A third believed that chickenpox was a normal childhood illness and 40 per cent believed that universal immunisation might shift the disease from childhood to adulthood (Arch Ped Adolesc Med, 1999; 153: 357-62).