Pox party

You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.

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 eg 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 an age before disaster is likely, from Chickenpox or Rubella particularly.

Since 1995 Chickenpox immunisation has been routine in the U.S. and parts of Canada, but not the UK. (See Chickenpox

Efficacy: The vaccine adequately immunises 70-90% of recipients, attenuating symptoms in those who do later contract the disease.^{[citation needed]}

Children have a milder course of the disease than adults, for whom the disease can often be fatal. (See Chickenpox)

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.

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.

External links

• The return of the measles party
• Playing chicken: Some parents want children to catch chicken pox

v • d • e Vaccines, Vaccination, Immunization, and Inoculation
Development	Adjuvants • Cancer vaccines • DNA vaccination • HIV • Live vector vaccine • Models • Timeline • Trial
Administration	ACIP • GAVI • VAERS • Vaccine court • Vaccine injury • Policy • Schedule • VSD
Live vaccines	Anthrax • BCG • Flu • MMR • MMRV • Polio(OPV) • Smallpox • Varicella • Yellow fever
Inactivated/toxoid vaccines	inactivated virus: Flu • HAV • Polio(IPV) •• inactivated bacteria/toxoid: DTwP •• conjugate: Hib • PCV
Other vaccines	subunit: Anthrax • DTaP • HPV •• recombinant DNA: HBV •• other: Anthrax • PPV
Controversy	General • A-CHAMP • MMR • NCVIA • Pox party • Safe Minds • Thiomersal
See also	List of vaccine topics • Epidemiology