Leery of Vaccine, Some Parents Hold 'Chickenpox Parties'

Fox News ^ | 10/19/2001

[Aurelius]

Life expectancy was low, yes, but longevity no different than today. I don't know that life expectancy was low because of illnesses rather than the other hazards of their particular way of life.

As for the diseases you mention, with the possible exception of rabies, they are all "diseases of civilization" (i.e. diseases requiring high population density to be sustained) and would not have been encountered by paleolithic people. Their greatest health threat would have been from internal parasitic infestations.

[Britton J Wingfield]

I had mild chicken pox as a child, then EVIL shingles a year or two later. I still have scars 25 years later, and it came back twice during my 20s (though not severe like the first time)

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I got the chicken pox when I was 6, it's because I had chicken pox that I had severe Herpes Zoster. ( Shingles) Shingles are a manifestation of the chicken pox virus which remains in your spinal fluid and then follows a nerve to create the most painful and disgusting disease later on in life.

It wasn't the chicken pox that I had when I was 17, it was because of childhood chicken pox.

[FITZ]

I think it should be up to individual parents. The vaccine should be offered but not required because there is no proof yet that it will prevent shingles. I believe children with weaker immune systems should probably have the vaccine but the average healthy kid can handle chickenpox easily.

[FITZ]

So that the immune system learns a proper acute response at the typical invasion sites, enhacing its non-specific responses to other disease.

That's my philosophy. I don't want to raise my children in a bubble and try to keep all germs away. My mother had to fight a tough battle to keep all our tonsils in us, she never went to college and the doctors then thought they knew better of course, but as we know now, they were wrong and tonsils are good. Microbes can be our friends, they can develop and strengthen our immune systems, just like anything else, practice makes perfect, they can also be used to protect us from pathogens. Asthsma now appears to be a disease of over-cleanliness.

[Katya]

You're as bad as the Never-Ever vaccinate crowd....these matters must be assessed on an individual basis. One of my children is vaccinated the other who showed early signs of excema and allergies isn't.
Strangely, the one who isn't vaccinated, REFUSES to catch the chicken pox...and I've tried very hard to expose her. She's grown out of her allergies, and so far seems immune to just about everything including the flu.

[cajungirl]

I think sometimes the good of the group is paramount. And that is the reason for uniform vaccination. We know some kids cannot be vaccinated for various reasons. To protect them and others we vaccinate as many as we can. If many people refuse to vaccinate, we will have epidemics and the ones who cannot or whose parents refuse to vaccinate are at risk. I know this topic is debatable but from a public health standpoint I don't think it is. Sort of like going thru a security check at the airport, we all do it for the sake of the group. And we all get a drivers license for the sake of the group. It is not conformist to do things for the sake of the group. And natural immunity to chicken pox does prevent future pox but predisposes to shingles. That is what parents are visiting on their kids in their enthusiasm to expose them.

[cajungirl]

And Katya, kids with eczema don't get some vaccines. That is good practice. And immunosuppressed kids don't. That is a different matter and is not loopy, that is perfectly reasonable. I am not criticizing that at all.

[SuziQ]

My second son gave ALL my kids chickenpox for Christmas in 1994! My oldest was 15, the second was 13, the third was 6 and the youngest 4. The youngest got the lightest case, and I won't know until he has a blood test with his physical in a couple of years if he got enough antibodies. The oldest got the worst case; he was out of school for a week! And being in the 9th grade at a Catholic all boys prep school, it took him about 4 weeks to make up all the work he had missed!! He was so miserable, but they had never been exposed any other time while they were growing up.

[Fiddlstix]

Fifteen years later, they studied those kids as 20 year-olds and found that the "outside" kids were far healthier than the "clean" ones.

That sounds about right.
When I was a kid (Growing up out on a ranch in south Texas) I had chicken pox, mumps, you name it. Most of the kids my age did too.
I'm far more healthy that most people my are....And I'm Not a young man by any means.
In fact, I'm a Damn site more Healthy that anyone I've met from the "Boomer" generation.
Just my two cents.

Be Well
God Bless

[cajungirl]

Well an unvaccinated child who gets chicken pox is dangerous to immunosuppressed people who may be passing the kid in the grocery store as he gets his first pock. And alot of people are in chemo or are immunosuppressed for other reasons. An unvaccinated child is at risk of getting, well, what was described above. Every unvaccinated child lessens the herd immunity. My last word. We just think differently on this.

[cajungirl]

I swear, my last word. The public health nazis as you call them have made you and me pretty free of the threat of malaria, small pox, tuberculosis, syphillis and its later manifestations. Their efforts thruout the world have made our lives better and longer. The story of the yellow fever and other epidemics in this country was pretty grim and then the public health people helped finish that off. Unfortunately the public health system has been decimated in the last twenty years and has been politicized and used for strange reasons. But the public health system prior was amazing and something to be grateful for. I saw kids with whooping cough and diptheria when I was a child,,it wasn't a good thing to see or have.

[cajungirl]

I swear, my last word. The public health nazis as you call them have made you and me pretty free of the threat of malaria, small pox, tuberculosis, syphillis and its later manifestations. Their efforts thruout the world have made our lives better and longer. The story of the yellow fever and other epidemics in this country was pretty grim and then the public health people helped finish that off. Unfortunately the public health system has been decimated in the last twenty years and has been politicized and used for strange reasons. But the public health system prior was amazing and something to be grateful for. I saw kids with whooping cough and diptheria when I was a child,,it wasn't a good thing to see or have.

[Polybius]

Fifteen years later, they studied those kids as 20 year-olds and found that the "outside" kids were far healthier than the "clean" ones.

The outside kids were getting natural vaccinations to a wide range of pathogens and developing immunity to them. The sheltered kids were raised as immunological virgins to these pathogens and were therefore vulnerable to them once they became adults and no longer had Mommy there to protect them from the cold, cruel world.

[FrogMom]

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

No kidding. Getting chicken pox does not necessarily give life-long immunity anyway. My friend's son had chicken pox three times - doctor was scratching his head saying it was "impossible" - but he'd seen the child two of the times himself!

[HENRYADAMS]

Agreed. However, in the defense of these parents they have asked themselves; "Can I trust those now administering Government and those placed in positions of trust in the private sector?" They have answered this silent question NO! by their conduct. Their fear of those born to bungle is rational.