Vaccines for post-exposure prophylaxis against varicella (chickenpox) in children and adults

Varicella vaccine administered within three days to children following household contact with a varicella case may reduce infection rates and severity of cases. There are no RCTs for adolescents or adults.

The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations (unclear allocation concealment) and by imprecise results (few patients).

Summary

A Cochrane review included 3 studies with a total of 110 children who were siblings of household contacts. Overall, 13 out of 56 vaccine recipients (23%) developed varicella compared with 42 out of 54 placebo (or no vaccine) recipients (78%). Of the vaccine recipients who developed varicella, the majority only had mild disease (with fewer than 50 skin lesions). In the three trials, most participants received post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) within three days following exposure; too few participants were vaccinated four to five days post-exposure to ascertain the efficacy of vaccine given more than three days after exposure. No included trial reported on adverse events following immunisation.

Clinical comments

Date of latest search: 2014-03-18

Ədəbiyyat

1. Macartney K, Heywood A, McIntyre P. Vaccines for post-exposure prophylaxis against varicella (chickenpox) in children and adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2014;(6):CD001833. .