Anyone who has If chickenpox shares a distinct memory: the incessant, all-consuming itching.
Ciara DiVita was only 3 years old when she caught the virus, but she remembers it vividly, as well as the oven mitts she was forced to wear to avoid scratching herself. She also remembers being taken to her cousin’s house while covered in blisters, hoping to deliberately infect them.
DiVita, now 30, was actually second in the chain, having been taken by her parents to catch chickenpox from a contagious friend. “I guess the chain continued and my cousin gave it to someone else at a chickenpox appointment,” she says.
A lot has changed in the past three decades, including the development of a chickenpox vaccine, meaning the virus is no longer the childhood rite of passage it once was.
Thanks to the success of the vaccine, today’s children are much less likely to be exposed to infection at school or on the playground.
Chickenpox parties are also widely considered a relic of the past — a strategy that many Gen Xers and millennials were subjected to before vaccines became commonplace. But just like the virus itself – latent and opportunistic – they have not entirely disappeared.
Before a vaccine existed, chickenpox, caused by the varicella-zoster virus, seemed inevitable. In temperate countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, about 90 percent of children contracted the virus before adolescence (in tropical countries, the average age of infection is higher).
It has nothing to do with chickens. This spotted, itchy and highly contagious disease may owe its name to the French word for chickpea, chickpea, according to a theorybecause the round bumps caused by the virus resemble their size and shape. Although most cases in infants are mild, adolescents and adults are more likely to develop serious complications.
That’s where the idea of ”ending it” came from, according to Maureen Tierney, associate dean of clinical research and public health at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
“You were trying to get your child to get the disease at a time when they were most likely not to have complications,” says Tierney, explaining that, generally speaking, the older the patient, the more serious the infection can be.
Although chickenpox zoster is usually a mild, self-limiting illness in children, it can be much more serious, and sometimes fatal, in adults.
“I had an otherwise healthy adult patient who died of chickenpox pneumonia when I started practicing,” Tierney says. “You never forget these scenarios.”
The virus spreads quickly through respiratory droplets and contact with fluid from its characteristic blisters, meaning that if a child contracts it, their siblings and classmates will likely be next, if they are not vaccinated.
Before the existence of social media, the idea that children should deliberately infect each other spread just as quickly through communities—in schoolyard conversations, in church groups, and in pediatric waiting rooms—leading to the popularity of so-called chickenpox parties.
The parents exchanged advice about oatmeal baths and calamine lotion and arranged to bring the children together when they thought one of them was contagious, although this practice was never an official medical recommendation.
“They figured if this is going to happen to my child anyway, it might as well happen in a controlled environment,” says Monica Abdelnour, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “Families were ready to face this infection, deal with it, and then move on. »
While the majority of children who develop chickenpox feel well again within a week or two, about three in 1,000 infected children suffer serious complications such as pneumonia, serious bacterial skin infections, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), or meningitis.
“Some kids get really, really sick,” says Jill Morgan, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and an expert in pediatric health. “The problem is if you had these parties, you didn’t know which kids would recover and be fine, and which kids would end up in the hospital.”
Chickenpox parties faded into obscurity once routine vaccination began to take hold in many parts of the world; A Analysis 2018 Global vaccination trends and infection rates show that cases have declined significantly in countries like the United States, Germany and Australia, where universal childhood vaccination programs have already been rolled out.
In the United States, the vaccine has been associated with an approximately 97 percent drop in reported cases since its introduction, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Global data shows a similarly sharp drop in hospitalization rates following the adoption of universal programs elsewhere: Uruguay saw a 94 percent reduction among young children, Canada a 93 percent drop, and Spain more than 80 percent.
While immunologists hope that, like smallpox, the disease can one day be eradicated through widespread vaccination, chickenpox is far from gone and for immunocompromised people who cannot be vaccinated, the disease remains a serious risk. The virus can also lie dormant for decades before resurfacing. shingleswhich can be painful and also lead to potentially very serious consequences. serious complicationsincluding chronic and long-lasting nerve pain and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
Recent efforts to increase shingles vaccination among older generations have been even more effective than expected: New research suggests that people who receive the shingles vaccine, which targets the same varicella-zoster virus, may suffer slower aging and lower risk of dementia.
“By vaccinating patients, we protect people who cannot get vaccinated,” explains Morgan.
“Hey Moms”, TikTok creator Hannah Grabau Kugel joked about a post she had seen on social media. “Are there any other grass-fed, free-range moms who want to have a chickenpox party with me? »
His tone was ironic, but the subtext is not: it reflects something real that people notice coming up. in certain groups of parents on Facebook. Last year, the owner of an indoor children’s activity center in the UK was informed of one such party taking place in her venue, the BBC reported. She put a stop to it and called the idea “shocking and selfish.”
The anti-vax movement and the idea that “naturally” acquired immunity is preferable persists. In the years that followed COVID-19 pandemic, skepticism about vaccines has jumped, causing concern between public health agencies and achieve the the highest levels of public debate.
Doctors worry about what happens when these ideas spread not only through neighborhood networks, but also through digital platforms optimized for engagement.
THE World Health Organization also warned of vaccine hesitancy leading to higher disease rates worldwide. Measles, which can cause respiratory problems, blindness and even death, was once on the verge of eradication, but the United States has seen a steady increase in outbreaks. In 2025, there were 2,288 confirmed cases, According to the CDC— the highest number since 1991.
“It’s a problem,” Morgan says. “I’m waiting to hear that the same thing is going to happen with chickenpox.”
Chickenpox parties were built on the simple assumption that infection was inevitable, so parents might as well attempt to control their child’s experience. Public health education and the rollout of new vaccines have helped reverse this premise. But the Internet, with its algorithms designed for nostalgia and misinformation, is quietly rebuilding it.
Diseases are difficult to eliminate completely and, like stubborn cultural ideas such as the chickenpox festival, they are waiting for an opportunity to return.
“The problem is that when we have such effective vaccines, we are really effective in preventing infections,” she adds. “We are at an impasse. We have avoided these things, but we cannot forget them.”
