Experience of varicella vaccination in acute lymphoplastic leukaemia

Varicella is a common benign childhood illness. Rarely, serious complications arise. Immunocompromised patients usually suffer a more serious form of the illness. It is therefore prudent to prevent the infection in this group of patients. Varicella vaccination has been proven by several workers to be effective in both healthy children and adults as well as in leukaemic children. As the vaccine had not been licensed for sale in Singapore, we could only import 10 doses of the vaccine under special license. This was given to 8 leukaemic children. Of this, 5 seroconverted after the first dose. Two patients had the benefit of a repeat vaccination 3 months later. Both subsequently seroconverted. Two of the patients died from a relapse of the illness, a year and 2 years after the vaccination. None of the patients developed any side effects of fever and pain or varicella or zoster after the immunisation even though there was close contact with chicken pox. Although the study sample was small, it appeared that the vaccine was safe and efficacious in leukaemic children, especially after a 2-dose injection.