By Julie Stachowiak, PhD
Multiple Sclerosis Guide; Guest blogger
When I first heard the term "swine flu party," I assumed it was a party for someone who had recovered from H1N1 (aka "swine flu") and thought it was a lovely idea. Then I found out what the term really referred to: parties where people intentionally come into contact with someone who is in the infectious stage of the disease in hopes of getting a mild case of H1N1 before a more virulent (severe) strain becomes more prevalent. I guess it is along the lines of the outdated idea of intentionally exposing your child to chickenpox, so that they won't get chickenpox later, when it could cause more complications. Frankly, I never really understood that one so much either and it has now become an obsolete idea since we now have a pretty effective vaccine for varicella, the virus that causes chickenpox.
Honestly, I kind of still can't believe that the idea of "swine flu parties" is real. However, this must be happening or at least being discussed, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken this seriously enough to issue the following warning: "CDC does not recommend 'swine flu parties' as a way to protect against 2009 H1N1 flu in the future. While the disease seen in the current 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak has been mild for many people, it has been severe and even fatal for others. There is no way to predict with certainty what the outcome will be for an individual or, equally important, for others to whom the intentionally infected person may spread the virus." In other words, just because one person has just a little sniffle from their H1N1 doesn't mean that the virus that they have is benign for other people -- in fact, it could cause terrible problems for someone else, depending on a number of factors which are not completely understood yet.
The experts at the CDC go on to recommend (strongly) that people with the H1N1 virus avoid contact with others for 7 days after the they become symptomatic or until at least 24 hours after symptoms have resolved, whichever is longer. They stress that this means that your fever needs to be gone a FULL 24 hours without using fever-reducing drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or acetaminophen (Tylenol).
