As the deadly measles outbreak in Texas continues to grow, concerning reports are circulating on social media of parents arranging “measles parties” so their children can catch the virus.
The aim is to intentionally spread the disease to create immunity — as parents have attempted in the past by exposing kids to chicken pox (varicella)
Now parents in Texas seem to be trying to spread measles. As Dr. Ron Cook, chief health officer at Texas Tech University Health Center Science said in a press conference, according to Newsweek, “It’s a foolish thing to go have measles parties.”
Another expert reiterated the idea to PEOPLE. “Going to these parties with unvaccinated children puts them at extraordinary risk for disease,” Dr. Matthew Harris, pediatric emergency medicine physician and the medical director for clinical preparedness for Northwell Health, says.
“The reason we vaccinated against varicella is because it’s so contagious and spreads very quickly, especially amongst young children,” he says adding that while chicken pox is “not a benign disease, compared to measles, the likelihood of having devastating consequences from varicella is lower than measles.”
Harris tells PEOPLE that while he was in medical school, he saw an unvaccinated child with a “devastating consequence of measles.” The child, he said, had subacute sclerosing encephalitis — swelling of the brain — which is “encephalitis that doesn’t go away.”
“This particular child was neurologically devastated, would not walk again independently, would not talk again independently, required a feeding tube. This is, I want to be clear, very rare, but totally avoidable, right? This is a vaccine-preventable illness.”
As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says, all children are recommended for the two-shot MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella. The first dose is administered between 12 and 15 months of age; The second shot comes between 4 and 6 years old.
“We rarely, almost never, see measles in fully vaccinated children,” Harris tells PEOPLE. “Those who have received two vaccines, and those who do have measles in that group [have] very mild disease and almost never require hospitalization.”
The first death in the Texas outbreak was an unvaccinated child; an unvaccinated adult has also died in New Mexico, health officials said.
“I am absolutely 100% concerned about measles. It is at the top of my list of clinical concerns because it poses an extraordinarily health risk,” Harris tells PEOPLE, saying the idea of “measles parties” is “terrifying.”
“Children with measles are really miserable. They really feel sick,” Harris says. “They’re often dehydrated. They won’t drink, which is the reason many of them sit here and end up in the emergency department. where many of these exposures happen.”
The rash isn’t like a chicken pox rash, he explains. It “looks like someone threw paint on them.” The illness is accompanied by fever, cough, conjunctivitis (red, runny eyes), and a sore throat.
As Harris points out, some of the unvaccinated children in the current outbreak required hospitalization for pneumonia, a potential risk from the measles. So instead of a measles party, “the best way to protect your children is to get the two doses of the vaccines.”
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