'Parties' organized so that otherwise healthy people can contract viruses to gain immunity are no new thing; parents have been having chicken pox parties to get the illness over with at a convenient time for decades. However, we seem to have entered a new age with regards to swine flu, where parents in the UK are considering getting their child to catch the virus before it takes on a stronger form in Winter.

Chickenpox parties are generally neither here nor there for medical professionals, they don't pose a lethal threat and the illness can't generally be passed onto the whole family. Swine flu parties, however, are very much advised against by doctors and pandemic experts. While chicken pox only poses a lethal threat to very young infants, the elderly and those with immune disorders, swine flu has claimed the lives of several perfectly healthy adults and because we haven't been able to fully calculate its potential yet, we shouldn't be taking it lightly. Yes, catching swine flu at the moment would make us somewhat immune to it when it gets stronger in the winter, but that is also taking a huge risk, and one in which people could die.

Similarly, with chicken pox it generally doesn't matter for the child to go home and spend the week with their parents and siblings. With swine flu there needs to be a far greater level of isolation, where infected people shouldn't be coming into contact with babies, the elderly or the sick in any way. Unfortunately the likelihood of this happening is slim and instead swine flu parties could simply be spreading the virus to people who should not be getting it.

What is strange about the prevalence of 'swine flu parties' in the UK is that the UK is the exact place where there are enough Tamiflu antiviral drugs for every single person (approximately 30 million doses). So why are parents risking their child's lives when there could be a cure for the virus if they do catch it by chance? The problem seems to be largely due to misinformation, but more worryingly if it's a growing trend amongst parents (where there is a lot of competition to be the best caregiver) then they may not listen to medical advice.

For now all that can happen is that the US and other countries across the world maintain that medical advice is paramount. Hopefully schools and colleges will take responsibility and teach parents the proper procedure when faced with a local swine flu outbreak (wash hands regularly, sneeze into the elbow rather than the hand, blow noses into tissues and throw away immediately). We should also remember that the 1957 flu pandemic involved a completely new virus, whereas swine flu is part of the H1N1 family; a strain which most of us have encountered before. That doesn't mean we won't suffer, but it certainly shouldn't cause as many deaths as the Asian pandemic half a century ago.

Stan Tian

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