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Chickenpox diagnosis

Posted By Ork

"Chickenpox diagnosis"

About: Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital / Accident & Emergency (Emergency Care)

(as a relative),

My very young year old grand-daughter visited the Accident and Emergency department at Royal Aberdeen Children's hospital recently.

Her parents were advised by NHS24 to take her to be seen as she had a high temperature and was generally unwell.  

Whilst being seen by the attending doctor, she developed spots and was  diagnosed with possible chickenpox.   She was given a dose of ibuprofen and discharged home, with her parents being given two further doses of ibuprofen to be given as required.

I was concerned when they told me this, as my understanding was that current clinical guidelines recommend  that ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatories should not be prescribed for children with chickenpox, due to the increased risk of severe infection.  

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Responses

Response from Caroline Clark, Chief Nurse, Children's Division, NHS Grampian 6 years ago
Caroline Clark
Chief Nurse, Children's Division,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 29/11/2017 at 09:53
Published on Care Opinion at 13:33

picture of Caroline Clark

Hi Ork, My apologies for the delay in responding to your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to highlight this important issue to us. Its very confusing when medical advice is apparently conflicting and when I asked around the children's hospital about this issue I too got a mixed response to the use of ibuprofen in chicken pox. However I did get a clear view that ibuprofen is the preferred and most effective way to manage fever so there may be reasons why your grand daughter's parents were given this advice. This kind of advice will always be down to the professional judgement of the senior doctor on duty at the time as well the use of clinical guidelines.
I will discuss this issue further with the Unit Clinical Director and ask if we can be clearer in future about the use of ibuprofen in chicken pox. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention and hope that your grand daughter is now fully recovered.

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