Pox party

Pox parties, also known as flu parties, are social activities in which children are deliberately exposed to infectious diseases such as chickenpox. Such parties originated to "get it over with" before vaccines were available for a particular illness or because childhood infection might be less severe than infection during adulthood, according to proponents.^[1][2] For example, measles^[3] is more dangerous to adults than to children over five years old.^[1][4][5] Deliberately exposing people to diseases has since been discouraged by public health officials in favor of vaccination, which has caused a decline in the practice of pox parties,^[6] although flu parties saw a resurgence in the early 2010s.^[7]

Another, more modern, method of intentional contagion involves shipping infectious material. In many parts of the world, shipping infectious items is illegal^[8] or tightly regulated.^[9][10]