Experts: Giving kids chickenpox on purpose unwise

Experts: Giving kids chickenpox on purpose unwise

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0503270410mar27,1,3362977....


By Vincent J. Schodolski
Tribune national correspondent
Published March 27, 2005


LOS ANGELES -- When Carrie Myers Smith found out her brother's five children had chickenpox she quickly gathered her four kids and rushed over to her sibling's house to expose them to the disease.

She is not alone.

While the intentional exposure of children to chickenpox is the exception rather than the rule, it does happen, according to the National Partnership for Immunization, a group that promotes safe use of vaccines. Some publications have even offered advice on how to organize "chickenpox parties."

Parents are taking this route even though a chickenpox vaccine has been available in the United States since 1995, and most experts advise against intentional exposure.

"The idea that the disease is better than the vaccine is wrong," said Dr. Christopher Rizzo, a pediatrician in Cleveland. "It [chickenpox] can kill you."

It is not known how many parents decide to expose their children, but experts say the number of people being vaccinated by the age of 2 has risen steadily and the number of people dying of or being hospitalized with severe cases of chickenpox has declined sharply.

"By the age of 2 about 85 percent of children are vaccinated," Rizzo said.

According to the National Partnership for Immunization there were 65 deaths from chickenpox in the U.S. between 1999 and 2001, the most recent period for which statistics are available. Between 1990 and 1994, a period before the vaccine was available, there were 145 deaths.

CDC statistics

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, varicella, the clinical term for chickenpox, infects virtually every person in the U.S. by adulthood. After a single dose of the vaccine, 97 percent of infants and children between ages 1 and 12 develop sufficient antibodies making them immune to the disease, the CDC reports.

There appear to be many reasons that parents expose their young children to a potentially lethal disease. For Myers Smith, who lives in Landaff, N.H., it was a concern that the vaccine might not provide lifelong immunity.

"What I did was just get them together to play, had them drink from the same glass--stuff like that," she said in an e-mail exchange about the exposure steps she took.

Mothering magazine last year offered "Tips for a Chickenpox Party."

"The varicella virus is communicated easily through saliva. Pass a whistle from the infected child to other children at the party," the magazine suggested. It also told parents to make a record of the event because many schools require proof of immunity to chickenpox before admitting a child.

Myers Smith exposed her family in 2001, and all four of her children contracted the disease. They were ages 8, 7, 5 and 3 at the time.

Mother explains exposing kids

"They all got a really good case of it and were pretty sick," she said. "I did it because at the time they didn't know if the vaccine lasted throughout adulthood. ... I felt I would rather have them get a good case of them and be immunized."

At the time, Myers Smith said, her pediatrician agreed with her decision to expose the children.

There were lasting effects.

"One of my sons ended up with a big pit/scar back [on the] inside of each cheek," she said. "He would go through cycles where the pits would flare up and become very uncomfortable--sort of like big canker sores. He couldn't eat when they were inflamed." That happened every six to eight weeks.

Eventually the wounds were stitched shut, and the problem went away.

David Neumann, executive director of the National Partnership for Immunization, sides with most experts in advising parents against intentional exposure.

`Children at risk'

"They are placing their children at risk," he said.

"Before the vaccine was available, there were about 100 deaths a year and about 1,000 hospitalizations," he said.

Some concern about vaccines in general arose in recent years as there was a sharp increase in the diagnosed cases of autism in the U.S. But no definitive link between any vaccine, including the one for chickenpox, and autism has been found.

Prompted by concern over the rise in autism, however, the Food and Drug Administration advised in 1999 that a preservative called thimerosal be removed from all vaccines given to children. Thimerosal, which contains mercury, is no longer present in children's vaccines.

Four years later Myers Smith has a different view of the vaccine.

"I think that if I had it to do over again and based on what they know now about the vaccine that I would have them immunized," she said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0503270410mar27,1,3362977....
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