A Suffolk coroner has expressed her concerns to leading health organisations following the inquest of a 10-year-old boy from Stowmarket who died from chickenpox and sepsis. 

The inquest into the death of Nuel-Junior Dzernjo concluded on November 30, heard by assistant coroner for Suffolk Catherine Wood. 

Mrs Wood has now sent a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to register her concerns at the lack of guidance available to clinicians regarding chickenpox in the immunosuppressed.  

She said: “During the course of hearing the evidence from the expert and all of the treating clinicians, it became clear that there was some potentially relevant guidance available but it lacked clarity.  

“Here, intravenous Acylovir, if prescribed, may have prevented Nuel-Junior's death but he was instead prescribed oral Acyclovir which was unlikely to have made a difference.  

“Had clear guidance been available then Nuel-Junior's death may have been prevented.” 

Nuel-Junior was prescribed a high dose of steroids in November last year to combat a neurodegenerative condition he was being investigated for. It was believed that he may have been suffering from epileptic seizures while he slept, although a clear cause for his cognitive decline was never established. 

Nuel-Junior first began displaying signs of chicken pox on February 17. Steroids are known to cause immunosuppression, meaning that he was particularly at risk for the disease developing into sepsis. 

In the days before his death on February 22, he was examined by a nurse at Stowhealth GP practice and by a paediatric registrar at Ipswich Hospital, where he had been observed for some hours before being discharged with a prescription for oral Acyclovir, an antiviral medication. 

A response from NICE and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is required by February 12.

Nuel-Junior collapsed at home on February 22, the day after being discharged from Ipswich Hospital. He was taken to West Suffolk Hospital by ambulance, and died later that day.