There is a craze erupting among some parents of young children in the U.S. Some are hosting “chickenpox parties.” The idea? If you don’t like the varicella vaccination, immunize your child the “natural and old-fashioned” way. Get them sick.
There is a craze erupting among some parents of young children in the U.S. Some are hosting “chickenpox parties.” The idea? If you don’t like the varicella vaccination, immunize your child the “natural and old-fashioned” way. Get them sick.
Ever since the autism scare with the MMR vaccination, may parents have opted out of childhood immunizations. I understand how strong parental fear can be, because I am a parent. But I also know science. And- I know that there is a whole lot of nonsense posing as science that parents can access on the internet.
Unfortunately, while the association between autism and thimerisol in the MMR vaccine has long been debunked (even by the authors of the “study” exposing it), fear still abounds.
Here’s the real problem with the chickenpox parties. First, when a child contracts the chickenpox infection through exposure, his risk of getting serious sequelae are much higher. When he gets the infection, he may get cerebritis (infection of the cerebellar brain tissue), pneumonia, painful oral sores, keratitis (eye problems), secondary bacterial infections from sores on the skin, shingles later in life and more. Avoiding these serious problems was exactly the reason that physicians began immunizing against varicella. Some of these can be life threatening. These DON’T occur when you immunize children.