In a message dated 5/18/1998 5:33:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes: > Incidentally, isn't it kind of stupid for schools to still be excluding > kids with chicken pox? By now, either a child has been vaccinated or the > parents have refused the vaccine, which is their way of stating that they > have made an active decision that they want their child to contract the > natural disease. Hadn't thought of it that way. You're absolutely right. We should be sending these kids back to school immediately, as long as there's no one there with any immune deficiency or on chemotherapy. The only problem is that even though these parents say they want their kids to acquire natural disease, if the child has complications of varicella, they'll also likely be the first ones to sue. "If I had known that such serious problems could occur from chicken pox, I would certainly have had my child vaccinated!" Should we have parents sign a refusal form explaining the possible consequences of varicella? Moshe Adler, MD