KIRKSVILLE, MO -- What exactly is a chicken pox party?

A chicken pox party is a party that is given informally by parents for their children to intentionally expose them to chicken pox.

Before there were vaccines, parents felt it was better for their child to get chicken pox as a young child instead of waiting and getting it later in life.

There are some complications to getting the highly contagious communicable disease.

Chicken pox begins within ten to fourteen days after exposure and is associated with a fever and itchy rash. Children can have as many as three hundred blisters. These blisters can become infected with a bacteria. The worst case scenario is strep A infection which can be fatal.

Cora Elrod from the Adair County Health Department states, "Ten percent of children that do get chicken pox will need medical attention. Two out of one thousand will need hospitalization. One out of twenty children develop infections within the blisters. And one in ten thousand kids die from chicken pox each year."

According to the Centers for Disease Control the varicella vaccine can prevent the disease. Currently, two doses of the vaccine are recommended for children, adolescents, and adults. It is now a requirement for school attendance to have these two vaccinations. The first one must be administered to the child between twelve to fifteen months of age. The second one should be given to the child between the ages of four and five before they start school.

The bottom line is parents are urged to contact their physicians or primary health care provider for more information before exposing their child to a chicken pox party.