Adelaide mum pleads with parents to immunise their children after her 10-month-old son gets chickenpox

A MOTHER of four is warning parents against hosting “chickenpox parties” for their children and is pleading with parents to get their kids vaccinated after her son contracted the disease this month.

A MOTHER of four has warned other parents against trying to immunise their children through “chickenpox parties”, after her 10-month-old contracted the infection this month.

Emma Morton, 38, of Highbury, a nurse, is trapped inside her own home so her sick child does not infect others and has pleaded with other parents to have their children medically vaccinated.

She said she is aware of Adelaide families holding parties to expose their kids to the disease to build immunity, as chickenpox rarely strikes anyone more than once.

It cannot be treated with antibiotics.

“It’s where one of your friend’s children have got chickenpox and other parents feel like it’s a good idea to have their child exposed so they can go through the illness as a young person,” Ms Morton said.

“One of my Facebook friends asked me if she could share Oliver’s picture and there were apparently comments on that post (from parents) saying ‘let me come around and have a chickenpox party’.

“It’s just ridiculous how a parent or caregiver could possibly choose for their child to go through such pain.”

SA Health communicable diseases branch director Dr Ann Koehler has backed Ms Morton’s plea.

“Both shingles and chickenpox can be serious and painful illnesses, which makes any attempt to deliberately infect a child with chickenpox extremely unwise,” she said.

Children are vaccinated against the varicella virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles infections, at 18 months and receive a booster in Year 8.

Latest figures reveal that 90.1 per cent of SA children had received the vaccine as of June, 30. So far this year, 278 people have contracted chickenpox, up from 222 at the same time last year.

Baby Oliver had not received the vaccine because he was not old enough.

Ms Morton said she believed her son could have picked up the disease at a Play School concert at the Norwood Town Hall on August 17.

“It’s certainly not at my other kids’ childcare or school,” she said.

An SA Health spokeswoman said she was not aware of any cases from the concert and added the department does not collate data “on that level of detail”.

Ms Morton said her son woke up on September 4 with a “couple of dots on his forehead” but by that evening he was “projectile vomiting everywhere”.

“He ended up with a secondary infection all over his skin (and) his wounds are all weeping. It’s nasty,” she said.

“I’m basically trapped because he needs to be isolated, so I can’t take him to the shops, I’m having to get my parents to do my shopping for me ... because I’m being responsible so I don’t pass this on to other vulnerable children in the community.”

She said parents were irresponsible if they did not get their children vaccinated and there was no evidence to suggest immunisation was unsafe.

“There is lots of scaremongering that way and lots of misinformation ... what we are giving our children is safe,” she said.