Kentucky teenager who continued on varicella vaccination now has chickenpox

SALT LAKE CITY – A Kentucky teenager who was banned from school for refusing to be vaccinated against chickenpox because of his religious beliefs, now has chickenpox, reports NBC News.

Jerome Kunkel, a student at the Academy of Assumption Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur, began showing symptoms of chicken pox last week, said the boy's lawyer at NBC News. He hopes to be recovered next week.

Kunkel and his family said they did not regret anything.

"These are deep-seated religious beliefs, sincere beliefs," said family lawyer Christopher Wiest. "From their point of view, they always recognized that they were running the risk of getting it and they agreed with that."

According to NBC News, "some ultra-conservative Catholics oppose vaccination against chickenpox as it was developed in the 1960s from cell lines of two aborted fetuses".

Last March, the Northern Kentucky Department of Health "banned students without proof of vaccination or immunity against the chickenpox virus" attending classes at the Assumption Academy, reports the Washington Post.

A judge agreed with the health department in April, according to BBC News.

Kunckel's family has filed a lawsuit against the health ministry, saying they oppose vaccination because of their religious beliefs, according to the Washington Post.

The family said the Ministry of Health's decision "violated their son's First Amendment rights," according to the Washington Post.

Wiest told The Washington Post that the ban was unjustified. The school shares a building with the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, where unvaccinated students attend mass even though they can not attend classes in particular.

"It's a stupid ban that will never work and that's absolutely ridiculous in this context where they go to church every day together," Wiest said. "We are not at all surprised, that's exactly what we had announced in court. More than half of my clients have contracted chickenpox without complications and now enjoy lifelong immunity. "

The North Kentucky Department of Health on Wednesday issued a statement in which it opposed the idea of ​​actively seeking chickenpox for immunity, according to the Washington Post.

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"While the tactic suggested by Wiest could offer an individual future immunity against chicken pox, this infected person can easily spread the virus to other unsuspecting people, including those particularly vulnerable to this potentially life-threatening infection," the statement said. "Encouraging the spread of an acute infectious disease in a community demonstrates total disregard for the health and safety of unsuspecting friends, family, neighbors, and the general public."