Warning over swine flu 'parties'

Parents have been warned not to take their children to "swine flu parties" in the hope they will catch the disease now and build up immunity. Skip related content
Although no firm evidence has emerged of such events taking place, family website mumsnet.com has witnessed discussions over whether parents should take steps to ensure their children acquire immunity before the main flu season in the winter, when some people expect the virus to be more potent.

British Medical Association expert Dr Richard Jarvis warned against taking such an approach.

His warning came the day after news emerged of the first death of a child with swine flu in the UK. Sameerah Ahmad, who had underlying health problems, died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday evening.

She is the third person with swine flu to die in the UK since the start of the outbreak, but it is not yet known if the disease contributed to her death.

The West Midlands has been declared a hotspot for the disease, with 2,104 confirmed cases so far, more than a third of the UK's total and more than two-fifths of all the cases in England.

Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that she had heard rumours of "swine flu parties" taking place. "There is an awful lot of discussion from people who have come up with a fairly rational conclusion that it might be better to pick this up now, given that we all think it might mutate to a more virulent strain in the winter," she said.

"We have heard of people saying 'Can we come round to your house when you get it?' There's definitely a prevailing view that it might be better to get it now and some people are not despairing if there is a case in their school."

But Dr Jarvis, the chairman of the BMA's public health committee, told Today: "I think parents would want to take into account that the flu - although this particular strain is relatively mild for the most part - is something that will knock people off their feet for a few days and we are seeing appreciable morbidity, severe side-effects and sadly the occasional death.

"My advice to parents would be to take this into account before taking any child along to a flu party."

Well this is a strange one for me, i dont know whether to be angry at the parent's or not after all the way the human body fights diseases Naturally is to build up its own immunities by using a small dose of the virus itself.

So in theory this could actaully be a good idea getting the mild version now so that the more potent type that is coming in flu season doesnt affect you so bad?

On the other hand it is allowing to spread the flu more so than it would and maybe thats how it came about in the first place with overcrowding of pigs and the like?.

Being a parent i think im bummed either way i hate the idea of a forced vaccination but this doesnt sound much better either?

reply to post by Reading


It isn't uncommon for parents to do something similar with chicken pox. Get your child infected when they have a better chance of dealing with it. I can understand why parents would think this would work with the swine flu as well. Although, I was under the impression that the swine flu will most likely come back as a slightly different strain this fall. So would catching it now really even help?

Either way it is a risky proposition. At this point I am more concerned about the vaccine than I am about the virus itself. I really hope they don't try to force mandatory vaccinations on us.

reply to post by Karlhungis



Yeah i know how you feel, its hard here because my partner is what you call a die hard sheep


she has the mentality that whatever vaccine come's out is has to benefit our daughter otherwise they wouldnt release it

i have tried to convert her but what can you do?

so what can we do? i wouldnt be able to forgive myself if anything happened to me daughter if i did or DIDNT give her the vaccine

reply to post by Reading


Swine flu is a load of BS...it's a farce to keep stupid people's minds sidetracked as to not focus on the real issues at hand...half the cases were invented and the death toll is not nearly anything epidemic. It's a bunch of media hype and a load of chicken little's waiting for the "Sky to fall" because they haven't got anything better to do with their time. Get a HOBBY For cripe's sake!

Originally posted by ldyserenity
reply to post by Reading

 

Swine flu is a load of BS...it's a farce to keep stupid people's minds sidetracked as to not focus on the real issues at hand...half the cases were invented and the death toll is not nearly anything epidemic. It's a bunch of media hype and a load of chicken little's waiting for the "Sky to fall" because they haven't got anything better to do with their time. Get a HOBBY For cripe's sake!

Oh right ok no need to worry if you say so right?

your post is as ignorant as the thread that stated that if you simply believed that swine flu wasnt a problem it wouldnt be.

are you medicly trained? because if you aint then dont tell me swine flu isnt BS, your speculation is as good as anybodys! (but not as good as doctors)


id rather be prepared for something even if it turns out to be BS.

i bet people thought that the spanish flu was BS in its first phase/wave

reply to post by Reading


Have you really seen the numbers...Here are the numbers:
www.cdc.gov...

World population
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Population density (people per km²) by country, 2006
Population by region as a percentage of world population (1750–2005)The term world population commonly refers to the total number of living humans on Earth at a given time. As of May 31, 2009, the Earth's population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6,763,557,000.
en.wikipedia.org...

It seems to me that the so called Swine Flu has reached less than 10 percent of the populace, How is this epidemic? The media also did this with the bird flu and Mad cow disease. Learn the facts, don't beleive what the Media and WHO tells you. Be informed.

Okay I needed the population of america...it's 306 million
en.wikipedia.org...
divide 27,717 by 306 million people that's rounded out to 9.06 the percentage of cases in the usa.

[edit on 30-6-2009 by ldyserenity]

[edit on 30-6-2009 by ldyserenity]