I seriously can not believe people are this Effing Stupid. WOW!!! This is just as stupid dumb, as the idiots who don't believe in any medicine, as they believe God(which I believe in God-just in my own ways) will "Heal" them of their disease, incredible, people, just incredible. I guess that saying is true, Stupid is as stupid does.....

Vaccines can have serious side effects, make sure you read about and check all of the side effects before you just take your kids in to get inoculated. Our granddaughter wasn't one of the lucky one to beat the odds and now she suffers from a blood disease that can easily lead to leukemia. Know all of the facts first yourself, don't let the commercials teach you all about it instead! $$$

These people are psychopaths and ought to be locked up.

@drainbramage: That's totally irrelevant. It's none of your business what adults do in their spare time. Also, I find it amusing (and sexist) that you call the 20-year-old women "sluts," as if they're the only ones deciding to participate in sexual activity. Either way, it's none of your damn business what consenting adults do in the bedroom. Mind your own damn business.

@GamerLioness....Yes, you are right in that its nobodies business. But. Why do you think they are holding these parties? Im sure its not just to have a good time. Its to spread the disease to as many as they can and they just had to choose herpes(not the article the person you replied to). A disease that has no cure. What do you think they will do when not having any parties or when they get out of college?

Are they going to continue to have these parties or knowing their infected, are they going to have as many partners as they can find willing, to keep spreading the disease after leaving college?

Who knows realy. It could be just a college thing but, like i mentioned earlier, Herpes has no cure so once you get it, you have it for life and can spread it even though you show no sympoms of having Herpes.

You know as well as everyone knows that nothing is barely kept private anymore. The mere fact that these people are doing these parties on purpose makes it everyones business.

Chickenpox is a treatable disease. How long until people as sick as those in this article start having parties to spread a disease that is not treatable or more deadly then chickenpox?

Was AIDS "bug-chasing" in the gay community ever confirmed or debunked as a myth? There were several (fiction) TV shows about it, but then there were denials that this was ever a widespread practice amongst gays or anyone else, so I wondered which one was true.

Nosar08 There were articles in Rolling Stone interveiwing bug chasers - people actively trying to contract HIV/AIDS. Herpes parties - just heard of that one, but one in 4 or 5 have them so if you don't have it be VERY careful with whatever partner you choose. As far as chickenpox parties, I was vaccinated AFTER I had it. (age for vaccination is not new born) and haven't had it since, but I went to school with a girl who had it and had been vaccinated and still got it from her little brother :( But thank God it is cureable and not creepy chasing like HIV & Herpes.

I just looked up the herpes parties thing online and it seems to be more like a safe place for people WITH herpes to meet OTHER people WITH herpes like a support group & possible romantic hookup for sympathy and companionship - not bug chasing. Is there some creepoid w/a fetish sneaking around the places...maybe, but it's probably a good thing.

(to prevent scarring, try putting non-individual fingered gloves/mittens on your babies' hands) And stop sending diseases through the mail! You could inadvertently effect the delivery person who may die from the disease OR have their $$ drastically changed from being sick! If a chickenpox party is not near you or unknown near you then OH WELL.

Drainbramage, I really hope you're kidding. Anyone that stupid needs to be isolated from society, not because of a disease, but because anyone that stupid is a hazard and direct threat to society. As one who has had it for over 20 years, you can't really imagine how it affects most if not all your life. The itch is the least of the problems.

OMG, WTF is wrong with these mothers that want to infect their own kids with diseases. Damn, we need to build more mental institutions and lock away these mentally deranged people.

Here, I'll give you some grape Kool-Aide courtesy of Jim Jones. That didn't work out well then, but we can always try it again with the new and improved version filled with some lithium or something.

It amazes me that people still believe the lies about Vaccines being bad for you. EVEN after it has been proven that the article that started it was a lie, just like global warming.

yeah, well, i'm guessing someone out there would be willing to donate the herpes virus for free to as many, um, clients as he could acquire.

stop the earth i want to get off , this planet is getting sicker and sicker

jeeze over the chicken pox of all things, lol. this has been going on for a long time, before my time, and i am 45. parents dont intentionally infect their kids for the kids, they do it to get it over with. i wasnt aware there was a vaccine for such a thing, i am sure there are many other parents as well who dont either. then again my kids might have had it before there was one, i dont know, dont really care. at 7, i could tell you i would rather have small pox, than a flu party, and even with the flu, no sooner than you are given a shot, it tends to mutate and spead into a flu virus it doesnt cover.

i do not agree with selling/ shipping stuff infected with small pox, that has been drooled on by some other kid, that i do feel is wrong. but... with the economy the way it is, and free trade in other than the US with its residents... this story doesnt suprise me either. still small pox parties... not to boost a kids immune system, but, to get the whole thing over with while the child is as young as possible.

I worked with a young woman whose kids both got chickenpox - this is probably 5 years before the vaccine came out. Lo and behold, she AND her husband, never had the chicken pox as kids. Both parents were laid out for 2 weeks - her mother had to come in and help with the kids - who were fine in a week. Those are the only adults I've known that got chicken pox, and they say it's much harder on the grown ups. (My kids got it 3 weeks before the vaccine was released, or we would have had them get the shot - our little one had 60 lesions on her face alone, poor thing, lucky only 2 scars.)

Megalodon -- the story is about chicken pox, not small pox. Different disease.

@ Robert & Peridot and everyone else calling people idiots for not vaccinating- You are forgetting those parents who DID blindly have their children vaccinated to something they lived through and probably only barely remeber having... only to have tiny babies 18 noths old get shingles! Can you imagine how horrible that is? It is an excruciating disease for an adult, much less a baby. I saw that happen to my first child and decided against vaccinating my second until she was required by the schools at age 7 and will do the same with my youngest child. For some of these parents it's not an irrational fear, it's something we survived and much better than the alternative of vaccinating. I for one didn't intentionally expose my 2nd and 3rd child to someone with chickenpox, nor would I, but if they happen to have come down with it in the meantime that would have been okay too.

I think the issue is getting lost here in the thread, it's one thing to wait to vaccinate, or for some diseases maybe not at all depending on the health of the child, but intentionally infecting a child with an otherwise community acquired disease is rediculous and barbaric.

It doesn't matter if you've been infected with chicken pox by actual contact or through the vaccine. Once the virus is in your system you can get shingles at ANY age. I actually got chicken pox twice. All my sisters had it when I was 3 and I had only a few pox. I was exposed again at 26 while working as a nurse in Urgent Care. I was laid up for 3 weeks with a fever so high I was delirious for days. Pox in areas no adult wants them and permanent damage to my gums that my dentist cannot explain. I'm very thankful I was not pregnant at the time. Pregnancy is risky enough with out adding Chicken Pox or any other community acquire preventable disease.

@gamerlioness It IS our business when they start spreading STD's and behaving irresponsibly. They aren't adults, just horny teens in adult bodies.

You may post on the page that you have the pox and are willing to share but please keep your specifics in private messages between members. We are all intelligent adults but these guidelines will help protect your privacy.

"We are all intelligent adults".....said the idiots intentionally exposing and infecting their own kids with something that can actually be fateful in some cases. Now that's the funniest thing I've heard this week!

Well I think this is a good thing. When my brother and i were in the hospital with our tonsils being taken out, mom had us infected with all the childhood diseases. At the time i thought she was trying to kill us. but my brother and i grew up hardly ever being sick with anything other than a cold here and there. I remember goin home and being sick for a few weeks but after that it was smooth sailing. We both still have healthy immune systems.

Where are all these anti-vaccine people coming from?

Chickenpox KILLED 100-150 kids a year!

Now I don't believe this, but hypothetically what if the vaccine killed 2 or 3 kids a year? Well you are still saving 97 kids.

And none of these vaccines have killed 2 or 3 kids a year.

Same thing with Guardisil. Cervical cancer kills many people a year. And tons of others have real problems even if it doesn't kill them. Thankfully 1/3 of kids(and growing) get this vaccine.

Or meningitis. Texas requires meningitis vaccines for all college students here. Why? Because every year a few students would die from it. Now that isn't happening.

I will take my hypothetical even further. If a vaccine would save 1000 people and kill 999 - it is still worth it. Obviously, that is taking it to the ultimate extreeme - and there is absolutely no vaccine like that, but it proves the point.

And thn when you look at piddly side effects compared to saving kids lives - it's a no brainer to get vaccinated.

Megalodon-358694

jeeze over the chicken pox of all things, lol. this has been going on for a long time, before my time, and i am 45. parents dont intentionally infect their kids for the kids, they do it to get it over with.

I grew up with "chicken-pox parties" (as well as hootenanies for mumps and measles) when I was a kid, too. Back then, it was just expected and realized that virtually all kids would catch them, and since children fared better with the diseases than adults, parents just did want to get it over with. I remember having had all three diseases as a kid (my brother had them at the same time from the contagion). I recall no real "suffering" from any of them and any that there was was mild. With the chicken pox it was the itching, taken care of by baking soda. The mumps resulted in a mild sore throat but plenty of ice cream and jello. The measles had an annoying, low-grade fever. But with all there were days off from school (something kids loved, including me), having the "adventure" of sleeping on the sofa, watching lots of cartoons and playing, playing, playing. And then it was over and we were immune.

I remember when my cousin got the mumps as a kid. She went through the week-and-a-half of a sore throat with ice cream and no school and then it was over, nothing suffered and lots gained for her. Her father (my uncle), however, did not get them as a kid so he caught them from her. Being an adult, and unable to resist the disease, he ended up hospitalized and for awhile was in a coma and almost died.

Gamer; they are not doing it in the bedroom - they are doing it in front of 30 other partiers - wake up to reality. Check the site Dare (and the name of the places kids sleep at college) - be ready for future shock.

Did I ever say guys were exempt?

Ryan in Texas..if you actually do the research, no kid has died from Chicken pox itself. They die from complications that derive from chicken pox. usually what happens is that the kid is sick from chicken pox than is given a drug that impedes their immune system from fighting it and then they die from that. I worked in the medical field. You will never see "this kid died from chicken pox" they die from some sort of complication or from the drug.

And sorry to sound dumb..I have never heard of bug chasing..Why would anyone want to contract HIV/Aids on purpose? Can someone enlighten me on that?

drainbramage...I looked up dare & only found the office dare website. I also googled herpies parties & didn't find anything. I'm sure their are groups for people with herpies to meet others w/the virus. I'm sure it makes their life much easier to be w/someone who already has the virus.

FYI, Virology lesson of the day:

"Herpes" isn't one virus, it's a classification of viruses (Herpesviridinae) which, after initial infection, lie dormant in the body for life.

There are a bunch of them, including Herpes Simplex I (causes cold sores), Herpes Simplex II (aka genital herpes), Varicella Zoster (aka Human Herpesvirus 3, causes chicken pox and shingles, aka herpes zoster), and many others.

Thus, having a chicken pox party IS having a herpes party.

There is no reason why anyone should be outraged/disgusted by one, but defend another. The difference I see is that adults who go to these parties do so of their own free will (unless they are tricked or lied to, in which case the infection can be considered assault); children, being taken to these parties by their parents, do not.

The fear-mongering over vaccines has been proven to be just that. Vaccines are safe - statistically much safer than getting the disease!

Yeah send me a slice of some ecoli pie, key lime. Maybe we have been invaded, I seen this movie where they look like regular people and act like regular people but underneath they are space aliens. Real outer space aliens. Then they do things like this. They do all kinds of crazy stuff. Its bad, real bad, if we have already been invaded and we weren't told. Crazy stuff. The only way you can tell is with finger prints, in the that movie, anyhow. It would be nice if they came here because they want to buy something..

I know parents used to do this kind of thing in the 1950s. When one kid got chicken pox or something there was a get it over with attitude. I just can't believe people would be so stupid today.

Sounds logical that this would happen. The same 'sciences' that show that the children should be infected with chicken-pox lollipops are the same 'sciences' used my the marijuana industry to show that it is just as safe as asprin. You just can't cut through ignorance for some people by using medical science, they'd rather read the tabloids sciences.

Ignore the actual studies, claim there is a conspiracy, provide your own 'proof', and then go along with it. Yep, sounds exactly like the same thing to me.

nazratred people do die from chicken pox and mostly from secondary infection but the primary cause is still chicken pox. Many people with cancer die from pneumonia or secondary infections but the fact is they still died from cancer.

crswal - I shouldn't have used the phrase herpes parties - what these kids are basically doing is having orgies in the dorms - Dare Dorm and College Rules are two the site you can see such behaviour. Since a very large percentage of kids today have herpes, it only goes to reason that some of these students are infected....my bad for being mis-leading. Regardless, what they are doing would shock the hell out of their parents - I'm very open minded about sex - but this is just drunken stupidity.

Chicken pox vaccine will not necessarily completely prevent the illness...both my kids were vaccinated, and both actually came down with it when it went through school. Their cases were so minor though that you could have perhaps missed it except for the letter coming home from school to tell you that it had been going around. The reason for the vaccine is to reduce severity which in turn reduces the risk of secondary complications...among which is Reyes Syndrome and encephalitis which are life threatening. Besides, if you don't have to have a child missing two weeks of school in abject misery...why would you want them to feel horrid if it weren't necessary. The concept of sending the germs around is pretty twisted, but our folks used to send us to play board games with the neighbor kids who had it, under the theory, we would get it while we were young and it would be easier.

This is beyond aggravating! This anti-vaccine craze has gone WAY too far now! These people are a danger to their children and society!

This calls for proactive action! People need to start gathering info on these pox parties and other "bug chasers" and report them to CPS. I mean, actively go after these people! This is dangerous. These parties are just as dangerous to children as these anti-vaccine nuts claim vaccines are!

Chickenpox is terribly itchy and the disease makes people feel lousy sick. But even without dangerous complications, chickenpox lesions can leave permanent SCARS where they heal.

Do these parents want to risk their kids getting pox scars on their faces that will last for life? Do you want your daughter's pretty skin marred by pox scars on her cheeks, nose, and forehead? Or your son's chest and back pockmarked?

Just Google 'chickenpox scars' and click on Images and see what chickenpox can cause.

If you can't get through to these ignorant parents with medical science, maybe they'll understand the vanity risk!

you're completely right! I have had chicken pox twice in my life, once when I was a very small child and then once in my teenage years. It is very miserable - and I do have a few scars as a result of it which are not pleasing. It is a miserable sickness, I even had little pox lesions in the back of my throat! Anyone who would put their child through this purposely ought to be arrested. Let's try it with the parents first!

Some people are just too DUMB to be parents! Sending Chicken Pox virus through the mail????? Dear God.

I had chicken pox when I was a kid. Mom told me not to scratch, but I scratched anyway. I have a lovely round pox scar on my forehead. Had the measles, too. Another itchy childhood ailment. But to deliberately attempt to introduce these diseases into a child, and through such ridiculous methods isn't what I would consider good parenting.

OMG, a Pox party. I thought I had heard of everything. Guess not.....

I'm guessing that most people who post suprise at pox parties are younger than 40 or so. When I was growing up, chicken pox were something you were expected to get at some point: pox parties were parents' way of having control over when their children got sick with it. Chicken pox is normally not very serious, although it can be (my mother couldn't open her eyes because of lesions on her lids), and I have three small, barely noticable scars on my face from it. While I understand the shock at such a practice now, when the chicken pox vaccine has made the sickness rare, it really wasn't that big of a deal even into the 1970's. Like I said, before the vaccine it was expected that you would get them - chicken pox isn't nearly as serious as say, polio, which can be dibilitating and deadly.

I got the chicken pox at age 27, before the vaccine was available and I think it still isn't recommended for people over 25 anyway and have several scars from it a couple of them on my face. My sister used to babysit for a family who lost their eldest child to complications from it and that child was eight not a little baby. It's a shame that people without common sense are allowed to have children.

I had all the childhood illnesses: chickenpox, mumps, measles, rubella, and on and on. Why? Because there were NO vaccines to prevent them at the time. Our only "party" to catch one of these lovely maladies was our school classroom. How I lived through the first grade, I'll never know. Had a vaccine been available, like small pox (got my little round arm scar), we would have taken it.

At the time, we didn't have a choice in the matter. Now that an option is available, some people are refusing it. For all the naysayers, let me tell you this, the complications from these diseases are more common and more severe than those from inoculations. I won't deny that some have problems from the inoculations, but far more damage can and does occur by having the diseases. I would rather take a small risk than a huge one, and that's the difference between the inoculations and the actual diseases.

As for willfully spreading any disease, as far as I'm concerned, it's a criminal activity.

Had to laugh at the indignant statement that who would let their kid pop into his/her mouth another kid's candy. Hel-lo, ever actually been to a playground? Used candy is the least dangerous thing little kids put in their mouths.

I hear eating/drinking a lot of cherries helps with shingles Peter give it a try it may help. Cutting out the red meat and especially the cheese, would be the most difficult thing for me though.

Same here--had chicken pox when I was 5 and shingles when I was 14. My 3 kids all had chicken pox at the same time--while I was pregnant with baby number 4. (My oldest daughter picked it up at school and brought it home) My doctor told me to stay away from my other 3 kids--like that was even an option. The doctor said with my history and with the kids all having chicken pox, that the unborn baby would probably never get them. She didn't. I never had her vaccinated until it became a requirement for kindergarten. She's now had 2 vaccines, but it upset me because I believed my doctor when he said she'd never get them.

I asked my doctor about a shingles vaccine, but she said it's too soon for me, supposed to wait till 65 I think. (Was working with kids, and worried about an exposure bringing it back for me as shingles, which she said doesn't happen...I hate to take a chance.)

My son had chicken pox when he was 2, before the vaccine was available. He got it again when he was 20. His Dr. said for me not to be surprised if I got shingles from it. Fortunately I didn't.

When are people going to realize pretending to know more than a Dr. is dangerous!

All of you people posting about shingles. Don't you realize that a vaccine gives you immunity by actually giving you the chickenpox in your blood stream. We all yell that people should get the vaccine for their kids in order to avoid the shingles, but there's still no guaruntee that they won't get them. If you get shingles bc of the chickenpox virus then who's to say you won't get them from the vaccine too?! I mean let's get real here. Quit buying into what big pharma tells you and do some deductive reasoning. In the big picture, how long has the vaccine been around? I know it wasn't around when I was a kid and I'm in my 30's. So there's no way somebody who had the vaccine could have lived a full life and know that they can't get shingles. And if they do get shingles, do you really expect that big pharma or the govt would be honest with us about it. Or would they just say it's a coincidence?

Now, I'm not saying not to vaccinate. I did my kids, but delayed. But that was bc my husband's family all got them 2x's in their life and I didn't want to risk them getting it as a child then as an adult. (My mother spent over a week in ICU with it and almost died when I was a child) Now all I can do is pray that they don't get it as an adult even though they have had the vaccine. What I'm saying is to think for yourself. Don't just follow like a sheep.

There is a difference between catching chickenpox- a live virus that stays in your nervouse cord near your brain-and the vaccine, which has a dead, or inactivated virus. The body reacts to the dead virus, forming antibodies against the virus.

Basic immunology. Yes, think for yourself. Use scientific facts as the basis for your thinking.

But jane, why think when you can pray?

I had chicken pox twice. The first time, not so bad. The second time was horrible. I was hospitalized and I have scars from it. My son's doctor recommended he not only receive the intial and one booster, but an additional booster when he turned 14 becuase of a comprimised immune system. They didn't want to risk him getting chicken pox since immunity does apparently weaken from the vaccine after a certain amount of time.

Don't you realize that a vaccine gives you immunity by actually giving you the chickenpox in your blood stream.

Yes, the varicella vaccine is one of the few that uses a live virus. However, the virus is weakened so that it is unlikely to actually infect the person receiving the vaccine. In the rare cases when this DOES happen, the attack of chicken pox is much milder than normal. So which is better (and this applies to all vaccines, by the way) - the tiny risk that a vaccine will have a serious side effect, or the much greater risk that an unvaccinated child will be infected with a more serious form of the disease?

By the way, before I had my son vaccinated - actually, when I was still pregnant with him - I did considerable research on vaccines and decided that the minimal risk involved with vaccinations was far preferable to him being unnecessarily sick. I didn't "follow like a sheep" - I made the decision on my own after careful consideration - and I'm sure that's what most parents do. Having grown up in a time when I went to school with children that had suffered the effects of polio, I can attest to how valuable vaccines are.

There is a difference between catching chickenpox- a live virus that stays in your nervouse cord near your brain-and the vaccine, which has a dead, or inactivated virus. The body reacts to the dead virus, forming antibodies against the virus.

Jane, to be fair - as I noted above, the varicella vaccine does NOT use a dead virus - it's one of the few that uses a live, but attenuated, virus.

cassandra, they lowered the age to 50 this year... If your doctor doesn't know that, he's not doing his homework.

Old wives tale. Nothing helps with the pain of shingles except heavy pain meds, which my pregnant friend could not take. She suffered terribly.

Actually, recent studies have shown that the chickenpox vaccine can cause shingles in vaccinated children. It's one of the side effects of the actual vaccine.

Further, ever since the chickenpox vaccine was introduced, shingles cases have been on the rise. Basically, almost all people used to catch chickenpox as children. Throughout their lives, they would be re-exposed to the virus as people around them became infected. This kept up immunity to the disease and prevented shingles.

Today, people are not getting re-exposed to the virus because so many people are vaccinated. This is causing a rise in shingles. Shingles used to be pretty much unheard of outside of the elderly population. Now, recommendations to get a shingles vaccine is getting younger and younger.

To our population as a whole, the varicella vaccine has saved lives. It's saved approximately 80 lives a year (mostly adult lives) because the disease is more severe in adults. This is why it's been approved and continues to be administered. However, the down side of the vaccine is that adults now have to be weary of developing shingles because they are not constantly being reintroduced to the varicella virus.

Becky, what studies are you talking about? Do you have links to those studies?

Becky is correct. Shingles results if the individual has previously had chickenpox. These deseases are caused by the same virus. Chickenpox remains dormant, but can recure. Mothers have long held pox parties to ensure their children get the desease when they are young as the desease is much more dangerous to an adult. The risk of a vacination is that a child may have already had a case of chickenpox that went un-noticed. In such a case the vacicnation has a real chance of triggering shigles.

There's a shingles vaccination now. Get it as an adult, shingles can have an effect on your sight but most often it causes permanent nerve damage and lifelong pain. Lifelong pain from damaged nerves. Shingles is a bad thing. My mother had them on her face and she was permanently scarred.

@kmom - having chickenpox does not give you immunity from shingles - having chickenpox puts the virus in your system that can later cause shingles! Typically shingles outbreaks occur in the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, and those under extreme stress. DH had them at age 40 - he was under a great deal of stress and was taking steroids to combat a severe allergic reaction. I had them at 45 - no real reason known. @peridot - you can't just go have the shingles vaccine. Right now it is only available to those over age 60. I'm lucky that my pain wasn't as severe as most, but I do now have scars on my face, which I never had from chicken pox as a kid. Also, be aware that shingles can recur - doctors used to think it couldn't. I will say a tremendous number of my peers seem to be coming down with shingles - the theory about decreased exposure could be a reason.

princessbride YES adults UNDER 60 can get the shingles shots......I am only 44 & my Doctor offered it to me 2 yrs ago after I had 3 outbreaks in 9 months. The issue is that INSURANCE WONT PAY FOR IT, that is where the you have to be 60 or over 60 to have insurance or medical cards issued by government pay for it... get your facts straight b4 for posting next time. I didn't have the $350.00 at the time or I would have had the shot that very day. It used to be typical for only the "elderly " to get shingles but times have changed, environment, health & other factors now play a huge part in out breaks. I still get about 2 a yr & do plan on getting the shot this yr.

The shingles vaccine is NOT available everywhere to people under 60. I work in a nursing home and had to work with folks with shingles. I tried everywhere to get the vaccine and couldn't- because I'm 56,not 60 or older. The cost is exorbitant because the vaccine is only good for 30 minutes after thawing. But in Missouri you still can't get it under age 60 even if you will pay for it because it's an off-label use. There were no studies (at that time) to show what happens when you use it below age 60. This was the case as of last fall.

I wrote this above, but new studies have shown that getting the varicella vaccine can actually cause shingles. It's one of the potential side effects for children.

npr.org/blogs/health/2011/08/25/139947193/report-vaccines-are-safe-hazards-few-and-far-between

Also, the vaccine itself is what has caused a rise in shingles cases. Shingles used to be a disease that only effected the elderly. Normal adults were reintroduced to the virus throughout their lives, which kept up their immunity and kept the disease at bay. Because people are now vaccinated against varicella, adults aren't being re-exposed to it. People are now developing shingles and younger and younger ages as a consequence of this vaccine. It does NOT prevent shingles. It can directly cause shingles, and it indirectly is causing a rise in shingles.

I got the shingles vaccine about a month ago. My mother had shingles and that's something that I NEVER want to have. It was soooo painful.

I had chicken pox when I was younger. It was not a fun experience. The itching drove me crazy and felt miserable. I have several scars on my face and body from itching, cause regardless if you are told not to itch you will. I also developed shingles when I was 37. I was sort of lucky...it was not painful at all, but it did get in my eye and nearly lost my vision due to it. But I did not have the vaccine. Each body reacts differently to each vaccine. I think all children should be vaccinated, but is every parents right to choose if they want to vaccinate their kids, but it not their right to decide it that child should be put through the pain, sickness, itching and scaring of the chicken pox. To me that is down right child abuse. You are making your child suffer from your decision and actions.

Steve, there is no vacine for Shingles. If you had shingles that means you were vacinated, either by a doctor or by the chickenpox virus itself. Shingles occurs the second time you get chickenpox.

That theory is full of what comes out of horses' rears, JBAbbott. My mother had shingles and she had chicken pox as a child and was never vaccinated against them. She wasn't re-exposed, either.

JBAbott,

"Steve, there is no vacine for Shingles."

Hmmm. I wonder what my doctor gave me? He said it was the shingles vaccine. I wonder what it really was? Was he trying to kill me. Was he a socialist? Ahhhhh.

@ JBAbbot. There most certainly is a vaccine for shingles. It's called Zostavax.

Chickenpox is an airborne disease spread easily through coughing or sneezing of ill individuals or through direct contact with secretions from the rash.

JBAbbot u r still an effing moron there is s shot/ vaccine for shingles & has been for several yrs now....go do some research on it & when you learn the facts THEN & ONLY then come back & post an intelligent comment about the vaccine you say doesn't exist. And it doesnt happen because you had it the 2nd time....geez did you even get out of high school or did they just give you a get out of school free pass to get rid of you??

abbott u r so full of sh*t.... I had the pox twice wanna explain the "nothing protects you more, it is for life" crap you are preaching out ur A$$???!!! And I have shingles....put down the pipe of whatever u r smoking come back down to earth & get some normal pills & re-adjust to life in what is known as reality world & stop living in that make believe world of crap u currently live in.

Just because someone passes a test for parenting and is allowed to breed doesnt mean they will follow what they learned.

A person is going to do what they want to do. They will raise their kids how they want to regardless of any test they took beforhand.

To send a message to parents across the country, they need to file child endangerment on parents such as the ones in this article and remove all kids from their home.

You cant stop stupid people from breeding but you can step in when they perform stupid acts like in this article to help the child.

Don't you love people who "share" information about illegal activities on Facebook, and then can't understand how the "authorites" came to find out about them?

Indeed.

Stupidity currently reigns supreme in this country. The real facts are that no study has proven that these vaccines are NOT safe, within an acceptable margin. Medicine is in part an art...an imprecise thing, hence the term medical arts. There is NO treatment, medicine or vaccine that does not come with some side effect, or adverse effect if you like. A certain number of people have adverse reactions to aspirin and die each year. Does this mean that we should ban one of the most useful and beneficial drugs we currently have? The point is that the benefit must be weighed against the risk. No sane person can argue that vaccines have not provided an immense benefit to mankind. The real problem is that they have been too successful. People in this country no longer have direct experience with the often deadly consequences of communicable disease. Add to this the Jenny McCarthy's and bogus medical researchers of the world and we are setting our children up for disaster. We need a national law mandating vaccinations...no exceptions allowed. To do otherwise jeopardizes all of our lives.

I firmly support vaccinating children in almost every case. It is ridiculous that young babies are dying from preventable diseases like whooping cough because people won't vaccinate their children with DTAP.

However, the varicella vaccine is not safe. New results came out in August that explain how the vaccine causes brain swelling, high fever, hepatitis, pneumonia, and shingles. I'm not spouting off crazy information from weird sites. You can find that information on NPR:
npr.org/blogs/health/2011/08/25/139947193/report-vaccines-are-safe-hazards-few-and-far-between

According to that site, the varicella vaccine is the worst (or tied for the worst) vaccine in terms of potential side effects and risks.

Like I said, I'm in full support of basically all vaccines, but I think the varicella vaccine is bogus. I feel that the chickenpox is typically a mild disease in children, and it's not worth the risks of the vaccine to prevent it. Further, increased vaccination rates against varicella has led to a rise in shingles in the general population because adults aren't getting re-exposed to the virus.
So, I don't think it's just crazy people out there who are against this particular vaccination. I think there are very logical arguments to be made as to why this particular vaccine shouldn't be used.

Nothing you have written is based in logic. NOTHING. First of all you contradicted yourself several times...how on earth is anyone to deduce anything from what you wrote?

'I say...GET YOUR vaccines NOW.

Becky...when did NPR get to be a respected, peer-reviewed, medical journal. As a matter of fact, you have quoted only the part of the article that serves your purpose. The article says that nearly all severe adverse reactions "almost always happen in children with immune system problems."

Jerry, a report showing a handful of adverse reactions is not proof that vaccines are a hazard to public health.

kmom, while a "chickenpox" lollipop may contain more illnesses than just chickenpox, it most definitely cannot contain HIV, as the virus is not transmitted through saliva. Furthermore, "full blown" AIDS only results from the progression of HIV in one's system; so, if someone has AIDS, and they pass the virus on to someone else, that second person will be HIV+ prior to being diagnosed with AIDS... if that makes sense, just to clarify a little how the virus/syndrome works. The most important point is, one cannot catch HIV from a lollipop, or other strictly saliva-sharing routes.

Thankyou jerry. Catching the desease is much more effective at preventing a recurrance that the vaccine (in the case of chickenpox).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenpox

I never heard of pox parties before. It seems like very twisted logic.

Did any of these moms consider that deliberately infecting kids can have many unintended consequences, such as an infant or someone with low immunity contracting the illness from their infected child? It seems really selfish to me to take that risk. Someone could die from what they are doing!

Many diseases have been eradicated due to vaccine use. Maybe chicken pox would be one of them if people didn't deliberately spread it around! Hey, how about we deliberately spread around potentially deadly diseases like whooping cough? Natural immunity has to be better than a vaccine, right? With the line of thinking these parents have, we would still have diseases like polio and smallpox. Many people became sick or died from those vaccines, too.

Jerry,

The conclusion of the IOM report you referenced: "Vaccines offer the promise of protection against a variety of infectious diseases. Despite much media attention and strong opinions from many quarters, vaccines remain one of the greatest tools in the public health arsenal."

You left out the part that contradicted "...they just don't know..." assertion.

OH MY GOD I never thought ignorance and stupidity could annoy me so! You people have no idea what vaccines are do you! In fact you probably can't tell the difference between bacteria virus and fungi either. How can I dumb this down... Ok, the chicken pox vaccine contains live varicella virus, but with stuff done to them so their disease causing ability became way lower. But, whatever they have that triggers the immune response is still there, so the immune response is triggered, but you won't actually get the disease. The immune system (which is smart, unlike people), "remembers" the disease and will be ready for it next time, so the infection will be dealt with before you get seriously ill. All vaccines are like this, but some vaccines the bacteria or virus is "dead", or maybe only the part that triggers immunity, not the whole virus, is introduced. Of course it's best to have a vaccine where you are sure it doesn't cause disease but still triggers immunity, but it's not always possible to only have one but not the other. That is why there is live vaccines, it's a compromise.

Now in majority of cases the vaccine won't cause disease. But biology is diverse. The virus can mutate to get its disease causing ability back, and there are the other complications. Now, if any of you cared enough, you would realize that if THE VACCINE AND THE ACTUAL VIRUS IS BASICALLY THE SAME, any complication you can get from the vaccine (shingles, hepatitis) you can also get by actually contracting the disease, except with the vaccine the chances of suffering are MUCH MUCH LOWER. It only happens if there's a rare chance that it mutates, which all viruses and cellular organisms do (and yes even you).

As for shingles, here is the deal. After you get chicken pox, varicella virus is never cleared from your system, it's in you but dormant. In fact its DNA are incorporated into some of YOUR CELLS. Something from the environment, your body stressing out for example, can trigger it to re-emerge. That same environmental stress may also cause your immune system to not function well (and yes stress does cause that), so voila you get the disease back, except this time it's more potent and called shingles. This is why vaccines sometimes does not work, it all depends on the immune system. If the vaccine didn't give you immunity, DON'T BLAME THE VACCINE, BLAME YOURSELF!!!!! The second and most important point is, YOU GET SHINGLES BECAUSE YOU GOT CHICKEN POX and the virus is in your system. Saying that getting chicken pox itself will give you better protection to shingles than the vaccine IS COMPLETE DUMBASSERY!

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Adverse-Effects-of-Vaccines-Evidence-and-Causality/Report-Brief.aspx?page=2

There now it's clickable.

Notice that the vaccines which have some possibility of causing the disease being vaccinated against are the ones where the infectous agents have been "inactivated" rather than killed. You can't get the flu from a modern U.S. flu shot (you CAN get sore!) because the viruses in it are dead. They haven't gotten that to work right with everything yet, so the varicella vaccine is one still made from "inactivated" viruses and that is why it has the adverse potential that it does.

Of course, now they say the killed-virus flu shot is only 59% effective. I didn't used to get the flu shot every year; the last time I didn't (probably 14-15 years ago now) I got the flu, so now I get it every year and it's worked for me, so I'm the 59%.

I'm afraid that is not true. A booster can trigger shingles. The most effective vaccine is to catch the desease as a child. Nothing protects you more, it is for life.

JBAbbott - This extremely simplistic view fails to take into account the unvaccinated people that die of the disease every year, some of which are children.

Every decade (1990, 2010, etc.) I get my booster shots. Makes it easy to remember. Do you?

Thank you for that well-formed thought. I posted something similar. Polio and Smallpox were eradicated through vaccination. With these parents' logic, we would still have those very deadly diseases. I think these parents are being very selfish. They are not only deliberately spreading the virus to their own children, but risking many other people's health as well. People with low immunity might get infected from their child. It very well could be deadly for their own child or someone else.

Herd immunity has only been observed to be true in natural immunity, not vaccine induced.

itz, I am not sure what you mean by that. Many diseases have been eliminated due to vaccinations.

Unfortunately, those parents are also relying on herd immunity to keep their own children safe. This herd immunity is meant to protect the few children who are undergoing chemo and radiation for cancer treatment. Nevertheless, those parents who refuse to have their own healthy children vaccinated keep cancer kids out of school with their selfishness. They don't see it that way, though.

Unfortunately one day their child will inevitably become exposed to the illness the vaccination was supposed to prevent. If the child is lucky he/she will get through the illness without complications. If the child isn't lucky, the outcome will be negative with lifelong complications or death. The parent is responsible for this outcome.

They. Don't. Care.

Nor are they willing to pay for any damages. All they care about is their own selfish (and wrongheaded) reasoning. What will happen eventually is that we'll have to go back to vaccination at gunpoint, in the way that smallpox was eliminated last century. Really. Look it up: lies and misinformation and rumours went about, just as it does today, claiming that vaccination against smallpox would cause, and I quote: 'impotence, sterility, and death in immigrant populations,' therefore the National Guard and local police squads were required to go with the local Health Boards and vaccinate people and their children at gunpoint.

Think that won't happen again? You're dreaming.

The idea back then was to get it out of the way. It was better to be able to plan when their kids would have it and then there would be no worries of having worse risks as adults. Odds were we were going to suffer it anyway. That is not the case today. Why should a child have to suffer this not so fun virus when all it takes is a simple shot. Even if you do need boosters, thats still better than two weeks of misery.

I was born in 1983 and I got it when I was five or six or so. I agree, the idea even then was still to get it out of the way, but this practice is needless with the vaccine that's available now. But a lot of people are anti-vaccine these days and that probably has quite a bit to do with it.

Yeah, because everything is a conspiracy nowadays. All these folks lack are the tinfoil hats. My case was so bad 45 years ago I still remember it. Too sick and especially too itchy, not to mention scary looking, to go anywhere or do anything. Had it late in the Christmas holidays and hardly missed any school, though. Then mumps during spring break. Those were the days -- NOT! People need to care about their kids enough to learn the facts, not the myths.

I was born in 1983 as well, and I was just reading this article to my father and asked if he would have done something like this to myself or my younger brothers. His response? "I think we did take you over to a friend's house". Oddly enough I began to outbreak during my pre-school graduation and had to leave but I don't remember anything else about it. I did work with a woman who contracted chicken pox (she had to be in her 30's or so) and ended up in the hospital for almost 2 weeks. Granted times have changed and I don't have any children so I can't say what I would do, but whether you believe in vaccinations or not there is something troubling about someone going to these lengths (aside from the lollipops being infected, what else could be in there? How unsanitary!!!!). I can't judge on the "pox parties" though, apparently my parents did it and I'm quite healthy and they're wonderful parents.

I grew up in the late 50s and early 60s and don't remember anyone ever having "pox parties". When you grew up in a neighborhood of all young families, like I did, it was pretty much a given that once one kid came down with chicken pox, the whole neighborhood would, since we kids were in such frequent contact with each other. But I can't imagine my mother ever deliberately exposing my brother and me to the virus!

I never had mumps. It's time to ask for the immunisation...I'd hate to have that disease now.

Indeed.

Fine. Take your family and go somewhere else so you don't endanger the intelligent folks lives.

Care to inform us where you got the numbers that show it is the same risk?

Somehow I doubt I'll get a response.

"You itch, you might get a little scar, you might get shingles as an adult."

You could also have it spread to internal organs and be hospitalized or die. I was very close to dying of chicken pox as a child, people don't often realize just how dangerous chicken pox can be (especially to people with weak immune systems.)

there are no might's about it. chicken pox is horrible for a child and unless they are complete idiots its horrible for a parent to see their child with it. Pox can KILL, besides the scarring , itching and all around miserable condition of it. get your kids vaccinated or don't but do not purposely try to give them the chicken pox. i had it when my kids had it and its the most miserable sick i have ever felt and i have been in and out of hospitals all my life. mailing that thru the mail could make people sick who are not stupid enough to ask for it.

lazy i d i o t s. I looked it up for you

dot vaccinetruth dot org/chicken_pox.htm

and my favorite...

dot nejm dot org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa021662

plus numerous other medical sites that say the same thing. Don't bother replying with your own contradictory sites. I don't care. I know what's best for my child and poisoning them so that big pharma can make another buck or you to get to have some false sense of security isn't it. So all I say to you is this. We live in a country that says you can choose most of the time for your own child. Don't like me being able to choose as well? Move!

You left out an important and significant risk, Cshellz: your child could be one of the 150 that dies from the disease. All the anti-vaccine parents seem to skip right over that possibility. Be sure to consider it, will you? Don't forget the mental retardation, deafness and blindness that's a larger risk with chicken pox, or have you closed your eyes to this possibility as well?

Still want your kid to go through a 2 week long illness that requires complete isolation and parental attention or a nurse? Make your choice, but be sure you're counting all the dangers.

14,000 people are hospitilised each year with complications from chickenpox

Shingles occur afterward in 20% of people who have had chickenpox...there is a vaccine for Shingles

Respiratory complications:

• Contracting chickenpox at an older age
• A rash that involves a larger number of lesions
• A compromised immune system
• Pregnancy (especially in the third trimester)
• Smoking
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Loss of hearing is also a complication of chicken pox in children and adults if pox develop in the eardrum.

Becky, what article did you read??? You have very effectively twisted it's contents to suit your rather unsupportable position. What part of unvaccinated people die every year from this disease do you not understand??

Becky, please show me the studies.

Becky444,

Sorry dear, but you are can't read. I followed your link and it does not say what you claim. You put your own spin on it by leaving out key facts. Here is the full statement: " The varicella vaccine can cause a variety of problems, including brain swelling, hepatitis, shingles and pneumonia, though those problems almost always happen in children with immune system problems." Your own link went on to say, "Six vaccines were listed as sometimes causing anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. Those are MMR, varicella, influenza, hepatitis B, meningococcal, and tetanus. That risk can be largely avoided if people wait in the doctor's office for 30 minutes after having a shot." The report being cited in the NPR article also said, "It's really clear that the vaccines we administer to children have saved lots of lives, and have avoided a lot of suffering." You, Becky, are looking at a tree and seeing a forest.

@Becky 4441282 who said...

It causes brain swelling, shingles, high fever, hepatitis, pneumonia and shingles

I really dont know whats wrong with you or why you keep quoting bogus information but this statement is 100% wrong.

Possible side effects...

Mild problems

*Soreness and swelling of shot area

*Fever(1 out of 10 or less)

*Mild rash up to 1 month after vax.(1 out of 25) Possible to infect others but rare.

Moderate Problems

*Seizure caused by fever(very rare)

Severe Problems

*Pneumonia(very rare)

I have found nothing based on your claims so please stop already with the false information.

I wish the vaccine had been around when my kids were small. I would rather them get a single vaccine than to suffer a week or longer with the disease. Also, a very serious possible complication of chicken pox is Reye syndrome. When I was a kid, a little girl who lived across the street from us died of this complication.

Agreed. Chicken Pox is a dreadful illness and it's miserable to suffer through. During the infectious phase my friend who was pregnant was exposed and contracted shingles. It was horrific for her.

Didn't think of that, did you? Just collateral damage, right? Still, she has scarring and nerve damage.