Chicken Pox Party, How Will You RSVP?

At seven years old I contracted the chicken pox the natural way, from some other student in class who came to school with it unknowingly, I hope. I wonder if he caught the virus naturally or if he spent the weekend partying it up at another kid’s chicken pox party. I will never know. But I will never forget having the chicken pox thanks to the scars left behind.

Last week I heard a report about parents mail ordering the chicken pox virus! All so they can expose their own children with the virus at a young age. There are equally willing parents that are asking their infected children to lick on lollipops so they can ship them off to other parents eager to expose their kids to the virus.

And neither party sees something wrong with this?

Let’s try and ignore the gross fact that you are basically transferring spit from one stranger to another. How is it okay to have your child do it, if you can't or don't want to do it yourself? Do you really want to order chicken box germs from people you virtually meet on Facebook. Who knows what other microbes and germs those laced lollipops could be containing – unintentionally or not.

Luckily authorities have stepped in with a stern warning to parents. Apparently sending a virus through the mail is against Federal law. Did we all forget about the anthrax scare?

Not only that, it’s highly likely that the virus will not sustain itself long enough to achieve the desired result, contracting your child with chicken pox virus.

Personally, I don’t see why anyone would want to intentionally infect their child with the chicken pox. I suppose you could argue if they contract the chicken pox at a younger age they won’t have to worry about getting them at an older age, when the reaction can be much worse. But what happens if your child is one of the few that has complications?

What happens if your child becomes one of the 14,000 people hospitalized because of the chicken pox or worse, one of the people that die from the complications of the virus? Or even worse what if your best friend’s daughter has serious complications after attending your chicken pox party.

If you are so concerned about the virus why not vaccinate your child against it. Most schools in our area require the chicken pox vaccination and it seems like it's decreasing the amount of infections. In fact, I don’t really hear much about kids getting the chicken pox at school any more. Maybe it’s because most kids are vaccinated in our area.

Maybe if these parents stops trying to infect their kids with the disease, it may just go in to remission like other disease with vaccinations.

Would you intentionally spread chicken pox to your friends via a lollipop or chicken pox party?