The HAS has decided to take up the subject and to include in its work programme for the year 2025 the review of the recommendation on generalized vaccination against chickenpox in infants.
Chickenpox is a very contagious, most often mild, eruptive childhood viral disease that occurs preferentially during childhood. It translates the primary infection with VZV, of the family of herpes-virus. VZV persisting after infection inside the nerve ganglia, is likely to reactivate during a decrease in cellular immunity, causing a zone.
The question of the introduction of vaccination against chickenpox in France has arisen several times. Two previous opinions (the opinion of 19 March 2004 of the Conseil supérieur d’hygiee publique, and the 2007 opinion of the High Council for Public Health) had concluded that it did not recommend widespread vaccination against chickenpox of children from the age of 12 months, with a view to public health. Currently, vaccination against chickenpox is recommended in adolescents, women of childbearing age or as a result of a first pregnancy without a clinical history of chickenpox or whose history is questionable, with or without prior serological control, people in close contact with immunocompromised people and people waiting for transplants without a history of chickenpox (or whose history is doubtful)
The availability of new real-life data, covering relatively long observation periods in countries that have implemented a varicella vaccination program in infants, warrant a re-evaluation of the recommendation on generalized varicella vaccination in infants aged 12 months and older.
