The health watchdog has concluded that the chickenpox vaccine should be added to Ireland’s childhood immunisation programme.
In a recent report, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found that the vaccine is safe and effective.
After being asked by the Department of Health to carry out an assessment, HIQA has since approved the vaccine and will recommend its use to the government.
The report will be sent to the Department of Health. At that point, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee will need to examine any potential issues with the rollout. If the Committee approves, it will then recommend the vaccine’s rollout to the Chief Medical Officer.
Approximately, around 58,000 people catch the highly infectious disease in Ireland each year, the majority being children under the age of 10. Of those people, it has been noted that around one in 250 patients are taken to hospital with serious complications from the disease.
If the vaccine rollout is approved by the Department of Health, it could cost up to €28M a year to administer the jabs.
In its report, HIQA noted that a decision would need to be made on the dosages of the vaccine, if it were to be approved for use across the country. Currently, many countries that offer the vaccine have different dosage levels.
“One dose of the vaccine will reduce severe disease including hospitalisations and overall occurrences. Two doses have the potential to further reduce the number of cases and eliminate chickenpox,” explained HIQA's Chief Scientist, Dr Conor Teljeur.
“We found that vaccination against chickenpox is likely to represent a good use of healthcare resources. When societal costs, such as leave from paid work to care for sick children, are considered, we found that vaccination would be cost saving,” he concluded.
