Chicken Pox Party 101 Facts

Facebook is the new medium for practicing medicine without a license for the chicken pox party adult advocates, according to Medical News Today. But parents contemplating this approach need to know the chicken pox party 101 facts.

If you are wondering why anyone would purposefully place their child in a room with someone with any disease, the chicken pox party advocates would point to several things. First, they would say that vaccines aren't without potential risks of their own, so this is a more natural way to give your child future immunity. Second, they'd say it was better for your child to get chicken pox now, so they can develop an immunity to it, before it becomes an even worse virus.

But whether you are for or against medical vaccinations, there are other things you must consider when putting your child in the vicinity of someone with any disease at a chicken pox party.

First and foremost, the medical community cautions that purposefully placing your child in the proximity of someone sick with chicken pox could also subject them to picking up a lot of other nasty health conditions such as hepatitis or encepalitis or even group A strep.

You don't know for sure that the party participants you will encounter -- or the people who bring them -- aren't carrying other illnesses or health conditions when you choose to place your child in proximity to them for the purpose of exposure to the virus.

Secondly, even if the chicken pox party participants were minus other health concerns, it still doesn't mean you have a guarantee your child will benefit from immunization due to exposure, since exposure doesn't always guarantee a child gets a disease.

Thirdly, and probably the most important reason to discourage parents from seeking some type of chicken pox exposure, is that the methods being employed (meeting at a stranger's home or purchasing chicken pox contaminated items from a stranger online). These methods are risky at best and criminal at worst.

Jerry Martin, a U.S. Attorney in Nashville told WSMV-TV that it is a crime for anyone to mail a virus or disease through the U.S. postal mail system. And you can't get around that legal restriction by shipping it UPS or Fed Ex either.

Law enforcement treat chicken pox mailings the same way they do Anthrax shipments, so parents wanting to purchase a lollipop coated with chicken pox from someone in another state better plan on driving to get it. Mailing it across state lines will net you a 1 to 20 year sentence if charged and convicted.

Lastly, even if a parent did make the drive to pick up a lollipop coated with a chicken pox-infected child's saliva, there is no guarantee they aren't being conned. People are always looking for a way to make a quick buck and mailing out lollipops with alleged chicken pox saliva sounds like the easiest con yet.

Sources: WSMV-TV, Medical News Today