From lollipox to measles parties: we’re talking about a whole new kind of crazy

So if the lollipox and the rise of chickenpox parties weren’t bad enough, here’s a kicker…Now on the rise: measles parties? My gosh, from what we’ve learned about measles and it’s complications, this is a highly contagious and serious disease for which we have an effective vaccination. So why are some parents insisting on purposely exposing their children to such danger.

According to an article this week, measles parties are on the rise. Organizers of such events usually take the stance that measles is a “harmless childhood disease” and tend to be opponents of immunization. They often believe that naturally induced infection has greater benefit for the patient than vaccinations.

Unfortunately, as we have learned in class, actually being infected with wild type measles virus carries with it significant health risks. For example, complications of measles include otitis and lung infections as well as post infectious measles encephalitis and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (a 100% deadly disease).

Measles can be a severe, debilitating and even deadly disease. On top of that, while people think they are exposing their child to measles, without a doctor present, a measles party could unintentionally spread other diseases. Lastly, due to the highly contagious nature, intentionally spreading the disease could likely have severe effects on infection rates of people outside of the measles parties. All in all, this sounds like a terrible recipe for disaster.

Now consider this: Conversation Parties and HIV. I’ll look into this next week but google it. CRAZY!

--Elena Jordan

(sorry for the late post, I accidentally posted this on the humanvirosphere blog last night...I got confused signing in and it turns out the passwords are the same)

http://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/family/kids/measles-parties-a-hazardous-route-to-immunity-1.1211175