- Sep 26, 2000
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http://tvguide.webmd.com/content/article/112/110552.htm******=rss_tvguide
It sounds like a plot line from The Simpsons. In fact, it is a plot line from The Simpsons.
Surprisingly, pox parties are popping up in neighborhoods in several U.S. cities. On Internet bulletin boards and blogs, rumors spread that the chickenpox vaccine is somehow unsafe or ineffective. Parents worried by these rumors join email rings. When one of these parents' children gets chickenpox, the parents invite others in the community to a pox party.
But a safe and effective chickenpox vaccine is part of the recommended childhood vaccination series. It keeps 85% of vaccinated kids from ever getting the illness, says chickenpox virus expert Anne A. Gershon, MD, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at New York's Columbia University.
"In a time when we have the chickenpox vaccine available -- one of the safest vaccines we have ever had, and one that works very well -- there is no point in exposing your child to the natural infection," Gershon tells WebMD.
A Dangerous Recipe
A "natural mothering" web site gives a recipe for spreading varicella zoster virus -- the chickenpox germ. It advises parents to pass a whistle from the infected child to other children.
"It is absolute lunacy," UCLA infectious disease specialist Peter Katona, MD, tells WebMD.
Adults who get chickenpox for the first time get a much more serious disease than do children. But even for children, chickenpox isn't a walk in the park. And every once in a while, a child gets a very serious form of the disease. One in 50,000 kids gets a brain infection that causes retardation or death. And itchy chickenpox blisters can get infected with dangerous bacteria.
"Imagine losing a child because you were dumb enough to bring him to a pox party," Gershon says.
How wacky is this?
It sounds like a plot line from The Simpsons. In fact, it is a plot line from The Simpsons.
Surprisingly, pox parties are popping up in neighborhoods in several U.S. cities. On Internet bulletin boards and blogs, rumors spread that the chickenpox vaccine is somehow unsafe or ineffective. Parents worried by these rumors join email rings. When one of these parents' children gets chickenpox, the parents invite others in the community to a pox party.
But a safe and effective chickenpox vaccine is part of the recommended childhood vaccination series. It keeps 85% of vaccinated kids from ever getting the illness, says chickenpox virus expert Anne A. Gershon, MD, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at New York's Columbia University.
"In a time when we have the chickenpox vaccine available -- one of the safest vaccines we have ever had, and one that works very well -- there is no point in exposing your child to the natural infection," Gershon tells WebMD.
A Dangerous Recipe
A "natural mothering" web site gives a recipe for spreading varicella zoster virus -- the chickenpox germ. It advises parents to pass a whistle from the infected child to other children.
"It is absolute lunacy," UCLA infectious disease specialist Peter Katona, MD, tells WebMD.
Adults who get chickenpox for the first time get a much more serious disease than do children. But even for children, chickenpox isn't a walk in the park. And every once in a while, a child gets a very serious form of the disease. One in 50,000 kids gets a brain infection that causes retardation or death. And itchy chickenpox blisters can get infected with dangerous bacteria.
"Imagine losing a child because you were dumb enough to bring him to a pox party," Gershon says.
How wacky is this?
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