"This vaccine puts children's health first"
All young children in the UK will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine on the NHS from January 2026.
The jab will be given in two doses, at 12 and 18 months, combined with the existing MMR vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
A catch-up campaign is planned for slightly older children to ensure they do not miss out.
Until now, parents who wanted to protect their child against chickenpox, caused by the varicella virus and marked by red itchy spots, have usually had to pay up to £200 privately.
Ministers hope the free vaccine will not only shield children from severe, although rare, complications but also reduce the need for parents to take time off work to care for a sick child.
The Department of Health and Social Care estimates chickenpox costs around £24 million each year in lost income and productivity.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock said: “We’re giving parents the power to protect their children. This vaccine puts children’s health first and gives working families the support they deserve.”
The announcement comes amid new data showing none of the main childhood vaccines in England reached the 95% uptake target in 2024/25.
Some 91.9% of five-year-olds had received one dose of the MMR vaccine, unchanged from 2023/24 and the lowest level since 2010/11, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
While chickenpox is generally mild, it can be severe for some people.
Pregnant women are particularly at risk, as the virus can cause complications for both mother and baby. Very young infants and adults are also more likely to experience serious illness.
In rare cases, chickenpox can lead to brain swelling, known as encephalitis, lung inflammation called pneumonitis, and stroke, which can result in hospitalisation and, in very rare cases, death.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments, recommended introducing the vaccine on the NHS in November 2023.
Experts say vaccination will dramatically reduce overall chickenpox cases, preventing many of the serious ones.
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, deputy director of immunisation at UKHSA, said vaccination could be “a lifesaver” for some.
Former JCVI member Professor Adam Finn said chickenpox is a “rotten illness” that is often thought of as “trivial”.
He said the UK has lagged behind other countries in offering the vaccine, including the US, where it was introduced first in the 1990s.
He said the main reason for this was because chickenpox “lurks around in your body for the rest of your life” and can later come back as varicella zoster virus (VZV) or shingles.
Health experts feared that if chickenpox stopped circulating, “people wouldn’t be re-exposed to the virus, their immunity would wane away and we would see more shingles”.
Professor Finn added: “Finally, we’ve now realised that concern is much, much smaller – it’s almost non-existent.”
Loading ...