HispanicBusiness

Physicians are warning people against the notion of holding "swine flu parties," in which people purposefully mix with others who have contracted H1N1 influenza.

The idea is that by getting infected now, while the virus is still fairly weak, people will immunize themselves -- or their chldren -- from a more dangerous version of the bug in the future.

"It is a very, very bad idea," said Dr. Walter White of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in a statement. "It goes against everything medicine and public health are trying to do to encourage social distancing for the infected, and it could hamper efforts to control the disease."

It's not a new idea. For decades, parents sent children to "chicken pox" parties, hoping to infect their children early, thereby immunizing them from a more sinister version of the disease, which hits older people harder.

White said althought the H1N1 virus is usually mild, it still carries the risk of severe illness and death.

"I certainly understandAthe possible reasoningEbehind it, but people need to know flu parties are really a dangerous idea," White said. "We really don't know, in advance, who is going to be the unfortunate person who has a bad or fatal outcome from this flu infection."