Bell-bottoms, tie-dye and crochet have all made major comebacks — but a New York City doctor is warning that one trend that originated in the groovy ’70s should stay firmly in the past.
In Texas, where 198 cases of measles have been confirmed so far this year, parents are reportedly holding “measles parties” to expose their children to the virus.
The infectious diseases shindigs are inspired by “chickenpox parties” that were thrown in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s in the hopes of infecting children with the illness at a young age.
The thinking was that chickenpox can be much more severe for adults, so it was better to get the virus as a child and build up immunity.
When the chickenpox vaccine became available in the US in 1995, the practice mostly died out — but some families may be reintroducing it among their unvaccinated children as measles cases are on the rise.
Ron Cook, chief health officer at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas, said he learned through social media that parents in the area are throwing these measles parties, according to Canada’s Global News.
In a media briefing last week, Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious disease at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, urged New Yorkers not to follow suit.
“The concept of measles parties — [which] really started as chickenpox parties — in other words, getting a bunch of children together for what’s assumed to be a harmless viral illness and getting them exposed, is wrong,” he said.
“We should not be doing that, and the reason is statistically, 30% of the children may develop complications from the viral illness.
“It’s much safer to vaccinate your child than to be involved in these so-called measles or chickenpox parties.”
Cook also warned against the behavior in Texas.
“It’s not good to go have measles parties … let me discourage you from doing this,” he said. “We can’t predict who is going to do poorly with measles, be hospitalized and potentially get pneumonia or encephalitis and or pass away from this.
“It is just too risky … we don’t get to pick and choose who is going to do well and not do well when you become severely ill. Please don’t do that, it’s just foolishness, it’s playing roulette.”
Last week, the New York City Health Department confirmed two known cases of measles in New York City this year.
Officials didn’t disclose the ages or vaccination status of the two cases, though the virus more commonly spreads among unvaccinated individuals. According to the New York City Health Department, if a person has measles, 90% of those around them who are not vaccinated or immune through previous infection will get it.
Measles shows no symptoms for the first 10 to 14 days after infection but then may manifest as cough, sore throat, runny nose, pink eye, white spots inside the mouth, a blotchy skin rash, and fever, which can rise as high as 104 to 105.8 F.
Though Gulick noted that most people with measles recover, severe complications can occur, and measles causes over 100,000 deaths worldwide annually — mostly in unvaccinated children.
“One of the most feared complications of measles is when it travels to the brain and causes brain inflammation,” he said. “Neurologic complications can include seizures or coma.”
Measles were declared officially eliminated in the US in 2000, but cases have been on the rise in recent years.
According to the CDC, there have been 245 cases across the US as of March 8, spreading across 12 states.
Last week, New Mexico confirmed this year’s second fatality, in an unvaccinated adult. That comes after an unvaccinated child died in February.
Earlier this month, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged families to consider vaccines, writing in an op-ed that they “not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.”
He also highlighted updated CDC guidance recommending the use of vitamin A “under the supervision of a physician for those with mild, moderate and severe infection.”
However, Gulick warned against misunderstanding the guidance to mean that vitamin A can be used instead of vaccines.
“Vitamin A cannot replace vaccination,” he warned. “Vitamin A neither treats measles nor prevents measles.
“Why people are talking about vitamin A is that studies in developing countries showed that kids — predominantly with malnutrition — some had vitamin a deficiency. And so it was seen that if you gave vitamin A at the same time that you vaccinate people, they had better immune responses.”
