Swine Flu Parties

Reported as a new trend, swine flu parties are being organized by parents to intentionally infect their children, hoping the youngsters will acquire immunity to H1N1. The practice worries the public health community.

According to infection expert, Dr. Michael Gardam, it's a bad idea for several reasons.

"First off, not all people have mild disease from H1N1. A small percentage develop serious disease. Can you imagine being the parent who intentionally gets their kid infected only to have child end up in the ICU later?" he said Friday.

Second of all, he said, even if parents think they can control when their child gets sick with these parties, as some parents did with "chicken pox parties" in previous generations, parents can't control how far the infection will spread.

"Unlike chicken pox parties, where typically, the adults have had the infection already, in this case, your kid could get infected and then come home and give it to everybody else in the family," said Gardam.

Gardam added there is no reason to believe that everybody needs to develop immunity to this virus. "Even in a pandemic, the majority of the population isn't going to get sick," he noted.

Research and development is ongoing for an H1N1 vaccine and until one is produced and widely distributed, people should avoid contact with the virus as much as possible.

Note that the referenced article doesn't provide details about the swine flu parties. No information is provided as to where they are occurring and which specific groups of people are holding them. Therefore, I tend to question the extent of the swine flu party trend.