This is getting too much. I don’t think we should be getting
anything from China until alot is changed.
Latest on the Virginia High School
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/138896
School calls in medical expert
An investigator with the CDC will help look into symptoms at William Byrd High School.
By David Harrison
Roanoke County authorities have turned to an outside expert to help investigate strange twitching symptoms in some people at William Byrd High School that were made public six days ago.
A Richmond-based medical investigator from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Roanoke County on Wednesday and will join a team trying to track down the cause of the mysterious symptoms, said Robert Parker, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Health.
Bringing in an outside expert could be a sign that an investigation has gone beyond the scope of local authorities, said Viktor Bovbjerg, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
“This is a typical thing to do if you’re either stumped or you have an idea and you need an outsider to come in,” he said. “If you bring in higher levels or an outside laboratory typically it means you’re looking for something specific that you can’t test at the local level.”
Parker said the CDC official represents “an additional level of support for that type of investigation.”
The symptoms, described as twitching, tremors, dizziness and headaches, have stymied health officials and sparked a whirlwind of rumors among students and parents. School officials say fewer than 10 people are affected.
“We don’t know where the finish line is,” Parker said. “There may never be an explanation that we can point a finger to.”
Epidemiologists are speaking with those affected and looking at their medical records, trying to determine what, if anything, they have in common. Did they all breathe the same air? Touch the same surfaces? Spend a significant amount of time together?
“They’ll be trying to look for the clues that link the cases that have been observed,” said Bovbjerg.
The school system first became aware of a student with the mysterious symptoms on Sept. 26. A second student came forward in October, prompting officials to test air and water quality at the school, said school spokesman Chuck Lionberger. Those tests found nothing wrong, but the school system is now testing surfaces in the building, which dates to 1969.
Several more students with the symptoms have come forward in the past week, prompting the school system to send a vaguely worded letter home to parents.
Since then, however, the school has been reluctant to discuss the symptoms or the investigation. That has outraged parents, many of whom have kept their children home from school.
“They waited too late. I think it would have been a lot better if they had told us weeks ago about it,” said Beth Mattox, whose two children have not been to school since Thursday. “I have a daughter that was in a room that was tested and nobody told me about it.”
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I agree. I sat yesterday at a Lady Foot Locker store trying shoes while they had a shoe delivery. Carton after carton was wheeled past me with "China," "Viet Nam," and other countries stamped upon them. Not a single made in the USA carton did I see. There is so much dependence upon China for EVERYTHING we wear from head to toe, consume (pet and human consumption) and use (bullets, toys, hardware, etc. etc. etc.). If we keep consuming from China, we contribute to the problems associated therewith, including the devaluation of our own dollar IMHO. We need to get back to producing goods for Americans in America - pronto.