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CHICKENPOX KILLED OUR SON; An itchy rash. A bit of a temperature. For most children, chickenpox is easy to shrug off. But three agonising weeks after the first spots appeared, this little boy was dead. It's a story that will terrify any parent.

Article Excerpt
Byline: JO WATERS

RICARDO ALVES-NUNES spotted the tell-tale signs of chickenpox on his five-year-old son Fabio's face as he got him ready for school. 'Fabio was full of beans, just like he was on any other day, so I wasn't too worried about the three red spots on his cheeks,' says Ricardo, 37.

'Like most parents, we thought it was a good idea for him to have chickenpox young and get it over with. We both knew it could be a lot more serious for an adult. We kept him off school and waited for more spots to appear. My wife, Anna, phoned the GP to check if she needed to bring him in, but the receptionist told her it wasn't necessary. I'm from Madeira originally and Anna is Polish, and we've always had high regard for the NHS and trusted their advice.' Little did the family know that Fabio would be among the one-in-100 chickenpox patients who suffer complications from the virus -- and that three weeks later he would be dead. Around 95 per cent of children catch chickenpox before the age of 16, and for most it's a mild illness leading to itching, blisters and sometimes a high temperature. It's caused by the varicella-zoster virus and is highly contagious, usually lasting a week to ten days.

In an estimated one per cent of cases, though, serious complications can develop such as pneumonia, meningitis, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), inflammation of the heart and toxic shock, a type of blood poisoning -- all usually down to impaired immunity.

Experts have calculated that complications may result in 6,700 children's hospital admissions a year in the UK. Indeed, there were 28 deaths from chickenpox in England and Wales in 2007, the latest figure available, including nine children.

Fabio's spots first...

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