There are not many, but there are women who reach adulthood without having had chickenpox and that means they are at risk of catching it at any time, being worse then than when they are small, because it is a disease that develops more severely in the elderly than in children. If they also become pregnant, the risk is twofold, because not only will it be for the mother, but also for the baby, being able to produce a spontaneous abortion, fetal death or that the baby is born with the syndrome of congenital chickenpox (minor to important malformations).
So if you are of childbearing age, you have not passed chickenpox and you intend to have a baby, go to your doctor and ask for the vaccine. There are many autonomous communities that contemplate this and administer it to women at no cost.
It is already getting at 12
For a few years, the chickenpox vaccine is given to both children and 12 year old girls who have not passed chickenpox, to prevent them from suffering in adulthood. In this way, there are many adolescents who are already protected who will not have problems in case of pregnancy.
However, a generation of women who were not vaccinated at that age, who are of age to be mothers and who have not passed chickenpox, at risk and without explaining to them that they should get vaccinated for chickenpox to prevent commented risks.
How it is administered
The chickenpox vaccine is given in adults in the same way as it is recommended in children: two doses separated from each other for 6-8 weeks. In the event that the woman is wishing to be a mother, it is recommended that she not become pregnant until 3 months later having received the second dose of chickenpox vaccine. During pregnancy it is contraindicated to receive this vaccine because the effects it can produce on the fetus are unknown.
How dangerous is it to catch chickenpox during pregnancy?
Yes, it is quite dangerous. As we read in the Clinical Practice Guide for Pregnancy and Puerperium Care of the Ministry of Health:
The greatest risk of severe embryopathy is in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, and its frequency is less than 2%. If the mother's infection occurs in a more advanced stage of pregnancy, the lesions consist of skin scars, limb atrophy, unilateral eye defects, central nervous system disorders and urinary and gastrointestinal tract disorders. If maternal chickenpox occurs in the last five days of pregnancy or in the first two days of life, the risk that the newborn has neonatal chickenpox is high (attack rate of 20%). In these children there is a generalized chickenpox, with a lethality that reaches 30%.
Will the doctor put it on if I am going to ask for it?
It is advisable in such a case to go to the doctor and explain the situation, so that the woman can receive both doses of the chickenpox vaccine. In Catalonia, for example, it is indicated and the woman does not have to buy or pay for it. According to the Generalitat:
Other indications are:
- Healthy children from 12 months - 18 months.
- Adolescents over 13 years of age and adults without evidence of immunity against chickenpox, especially in individuals in contact with people at high risk of complications (health personnel, close contacts of immunosuppressed people), teachers, day center staff, women in Fertile age not pregnant.
- Asymptomatic children with HIV, with CD4 lymphocytes, according to the number established by specific age group and percentage> 15%.
- Post-exposure prophylaxis (within 3 days, maximum 5 days).
- Outbreak control in kindergartens and schools of any grade or in any institution.
And in the community of Madrid the same thing happens, since in the calendar of adult vaccines we can read the following:
Adults born in 1966 or later without evidence of immunity (clinical history of chickenpox or shingles, previous vaccine or positive serology) should be vaccinated. The vaccination of health personnel and family contacts of immunocompromised patients, childcare workers, susceptible women of childbearing age and non-pregnant women and international travelers is a priority.
So that said, it is a very annoying disease in adults and serious if contagion occurs during pregnancy, for the risk to the fetus, so do not let it go and look for the vaccine before looking for pregnancy.
