Return to Sender: Pediatricians Condemn Chickenpox Peddlers

"Stunned.” “Floored.” “Horrified.”

This is how the pediatricians we talked to responded to recent news reports of parents exchanging chicken pox virus-laden lollipops and other items through the mail in an effort to avoid having their kids vaccinated against the disease.

In a shocking twist on the “chicken pox parties” of the 1960s and 70s – when it was common pre-vaccination era practice for parents to send their kids over to an infected child's house to get exposed to the virus – parents have begun arranging over the Internet to have someone send them lollipops and scraps of clothing that have been infected by a child with the disease.

And while the varicella virus is unlikely to survive a trip through the mail, other dangerous germs may,  New York pediatrician Jesse Hackell told PCC. “You're talking about sharing spit. You don't know what you're getting or who's giving it to you. It's just flabbergasting that people would take the chance of contracting salmonella, hepatitis A, mononucleosis or just simply the flu, when you've got access to the chicken pox vaccine, which is purified and tested.”

Chickenpox can result in dehydration, bacterial skin infections and, in a few cases, death. The disease led to about 105 deaths annually in the few years leading up to the introduction of the one-dose form of varicella vaccine in 1995. Since then, the vaccine, which is now recommended in two doses, has reduced deaths from chickenpox by 88 percent in all age groups and by 97 percent in people ages 20 and under, according to a study published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

“You're dealing with people who are of the opinion that chicken pox is a natural disease, so they say let's get it naturally and be done with it, but we're in the 21st Century and we can do better,” said Dr. Hackell.

But concerns about the potential side-effects of the varicella vaccine and others developed to eradicate a host of once-deadly childhood diseases persist, despite decades of evidence supporting their efficacy and safety.

Vermont pediatrician Dr. Joseph Hagan suggests parents are mislead by junk science and inaccuracies that are easily spread and go un-checked over the Internet. “I think it's a confluence of issues,” Dr. Hagan said. “One, we are a very anxious culture. Two, because we are an anxious culture, we're comforted by a sense of being in control. And three, we have a distrust of science and a trust in rumor. Put that all together and all you have is a limbic system to react on. You react on the way you feel, not the way you think.”

Or, there may not be a frame of reference for today's younger parents who never contracted chickenpox or measles, or who never had a chance to meet the relative who was crippled by polio, said Dr. Jill Stoller, of Chestnut Ridge Pediatrics in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

“In some ways, the only way this younger generation of parents will start to understand the necessity for immunizations is by experiencing the resurgence of some of these diseases,” said Dr. Stoller, whose practice has seen an increase in cases of whooping cough. Mothers are now being counseled on the importance of the Tdap vaccine during prenatal visits, Dr. Stoller added.

An upsurge this year in the number of measles cases has been attributed mostly to parents' fears of vaccinations. A total of 118 cases had been reported in 23 states through May – the highest number reported for this time period since 1996.

Linda Gray, a parent whose children are patients at Chestnut Ridge, said her one-year-old son contracted measles in 2007, while the family was living in the U.K. Gray said she was all for having her children immunized, but vaccines were not administered by the doctors there, and her child suffered the consequences needlessly.

“My son was so so sick and he suffered so much in an unnecessary way, we could have lost him,” Gray said. “When you see that this is not like getting a cold, that the child suffers and could perish, it's a real concern. These diseases are still very much alive and well, and they are really dangerous, so it is necessary to be proactive and make pre-emptive strikes by immunizing against them.”

The ethical and medical case against swapping infected items through the mail is buttressed by a legal one. Federal law prohibits the sending of diseases across state lines. “Sending chickenpox-infested lollipops and rags through the mail is the equivalent of biological warfare or terrorism,” said Dr. Hagan, who also served as past chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Taskforce on Terrorism.