Hello, spotty!

I'm sure most of you will have seen the pictures of the little boy smothered in chickenpox spots.  There is no vaccine against chickenpox here in the UK although such a vaccine does exist and is available in the US and Australia.  So why not here?  Well the problem is that chickenpox is an unpleasant, but generally not serious illness in children, but if you catch it as an adult, it can be much more serious, so the general consensus is that it is better to have it as a child.  Indeed, I don't know if it is still the case, but back when I was a kid, if any local child came down with chickenpox, other parents would send their children to go and play with them, in the hope that they would catch it too.