Disease · Measles & vaccine-preventable · 4 November 2026
Catch-up chickenpox vaccine starts for eligible children
UKHSA has published new data on chickenpox in England and announced a catch-up vaccine offer. Children aged four to six can receive the shot from next week. Routine MMRV vaccination begins in January 2026.
The UK Health Security Agency has released figures detailing the burden of chickenpox in England for 2025. Alongside the data, the agency confirmed that a catch-up vaccination programme is now available to eligible children. This immediate action precedes the wider introduction of the vaccine into the standard childhood schedule.
Figures show 3,037 hospitalisations for chickenpox among children and young people under 18. Over 15,000 GP consultations were recorded for the same age group. Children aged five and under accounted for over 70% of all clinical reports made to regional Health Protection Teams. Peak hospitalisation rates reached 5.8 per 100,000 for children under one year old, compared with 2.3 per 100,000 for those aged one to four.
School absence data from a sample of 439 nurseries and primary schools recorded 4,117 absences. The agency notes this sample captures only a fraction of the true national burden, meaning many more cases will go unrecorded. Consequently, the full extent of the disease's impact on educational settings may be higher than these specific figures indicate.
From next week, children aged four to six born between January 2020 and August 2022 can receive a catch-up chickenpox vaccine. From 1 January 2026, chickenpox protection is added to the routine childhood immunisation schedule as part of a combined MMRV vaccine. The routine schedule offers two doses of the MMRV vaccine, at 12 months and 18 months of age.
A selective catch-up programme runs from 1 November 2026 to 31 March 2028. It offers a single dose of MMRV vaccine to eligible children who have not previously had chickenpox or two doses of varicella vaccine. Children under 12 months are not routinely vaccinated because the vaccine does not always produce a strong immune response at that age.
Written by StreetOwl from UKHSA’s own announcement. It was drafted by StreetOwl’s own model, every figure and quotation was checked by code against the announcement, and it was read and approved by Michael Rossi before it went up. It says what was announced, not what anyone should do about it.
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