Pox party
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A pox party is a party held by parents for the purpose of infecting their children with childhood diseases, here chicken pox virus[citation needed]. Similar ideas have applied to other diseases such as Measles but are now strongly discouraged by doctors and health services. The reasoning behind this now largely[citation needed] historical practice is that guests are exposed to the varicella virus and contract the disease, developing strong and persistent immunity at a young age, as children often have a milder course of the disease than adults. However, this rudimentary method of "immunization" still leaves the individual susceptible to Shingles, which is a late effect of varicella that can manifest later in life.
Since 1995 Chickenpox immunization through the VZV vaccination has been routine in the U.S. and parts of Canada, but not the UK. See Chickenpox
Efficacy: The vaccine adequately immunizes 70-90% of recipients, attenuating symptoms in those who do later contract the disease.[citation needed]
[edit] Literary References
In The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson, the second part of the book describes a pox party outside of Boston in 1775, where all those previously uninfected by smallpox are inoculated by variolation, or by inserting pustules from former victims into a cut in the skin. Of the thirty-nine people so treated, three later die.
[edit] Principal Complications of (Wild) Chickenpox
see also Chickenpox#complications
- Death or neurological damage: 0.002% of infected children.[citation needed]
- Shingles - a recrudescence of virus dormant in a nerve ganglion, with eruption in the distribution of that nerve, pain and commonly scarring. A proportion of people will retain the wild virus, of whom a proportion will develop shingles. The vaccine virus is not reported to do this.
[edit] External links
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