Milestone in fighting childhood illness

Chickenpox can be fatal in rare cases

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor

A CHICKENPOX vaccine is being rolled out on the NHS for the first time from today.

It will be added to the UK child vaccination scheme as part of the MMR jab, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

Chickenpox is caused by the varicella zoster virus and mostly affects kids but can be caught by adults.

It causes a mild illness in most cases but can lead to serious complications, such as swelling of the brain called encephalitis, and even death.