The opinion “chickenpox is easier to carry in childhood” served as a starting point for the growing popularity of “windmill parties”. Enthusiastic mothers are happy to organize such events and invite others to exchange the infection. But not everyone knows about the real consequences of such leisure.
Windmill parties are becoming more and more popular. To sit in quarantine “under the guise” of a well-known pandemic no longer seems a daunting prospect – they stayed at home longer, and the approaching spring period, which is characterized by an increase in the incidence of chickenpox, threatens to pick up a sore against its will. Therefore, it occurs to some mothers to find a family where the child is sick with chickenpox, to pay a visit – and get sick in a controlled manner. But pediatricians warn of the danger posed by such “contagious parties”.
One often hears the opinion that it is necessary to get sick with chickenpox at an early age. That is why adults believed in the myth that chickenpox is an unpleasant, but not a particularly serious disease, and literally pray that their child will “shoot” before school. But not only the carriers of this idea are in demand for “wind-driven parties” – the main contingent of their guests includes people who refuse to vaccinate. And their logic, in principle, is understandable – vaccination has recently become available in Russia, and the “old-fashioned” method of acquiring immunity is used to be considered reliable.
“Good afternoon. Who has children with chickenpox? We would come to visit you with a cake and play. “
But doctors are sounding the alarm because they are sure that “windmill parties” are not fun at all, but a harmful idea. “Not all children tolerate chickenpox easily. This disease can cause serious complications – pneumonia, damage to the central nervous system and internal organs, ”recalls Elmira Samitova, Deputy Chief Physician for Infection, Children’s City Clinical Hospital. PER. Bashlyaeva, pediatrician, infectious disease doctor.
Even in childhood, the disease can proceed with complications, including such serious ones as meningitis, encephalitis, purulent skin lesions.
Participation in “chicken pox parties” is especially dangerous for children under one year old – they have a higher risk of complications, and the disease is most severe in the first months after birth.
Like other infections, chickenpox comes in atypical forms. Some of them are fraught with hemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes, nosebleeds, in the worst cases, formations on internal organs may occur.
“The situation when a mother wants to make a special contact between a healthy child and a sick child, in my opinion, should be qualified as deliberate harm to human health. You infect him with a potentially fatal disease, and no one can guarantee how this disease will develop, ”says Andrey Prodeus, professor, doctor of medical sciences.
Another popular misconception is that you can only get chickenpox once in a lifetime. In fact, after infection, the virus does not disappear, but remains forever in the body in a “dormant” state. Therefore, with weakened immunity, chickenpox can manifest itself in an adult in the form of a severe form of herpes, which is known as shingles. Parents who, for the sake of caring, organize and send their children to such entertainment, endanger themselves, too.
Doctors recommend: do not specifically look for contact with patients with chickenpox. The main prevention of chickenpox should be measures aimed at creating and strengthening general immunity, and the “chicken pox party” itself does not guarantee it. The best way to learn about ways to enhance the body’s natural defenses is to ask your doctor.