A Special Drug Just for You, at the End of a Long Pipeline
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Posted on 11/07/2005 8:04:39 PM PST by neverdem
LONG PRAIRIE, Minn. - Polio was pronounced dead in the Western Hemisphere years ago, after one of the most successful public health campaigns in history. But now it is stealing through a tiny Amish community here in central Minnesota, spreading from an 8-month-old girl to four children on two neighboring farms.
So far, no one has been crippled by the disease; only 1 in 200 cases of polio results in paralysis. But worried public health officials say it may be only a matter of time.
The story of how polio came to this dairy farming community of 24 families, with 19th-century ways that include a deep-rooted suspicion of vaccination, is both a medical whodunit and a cautionary tale, suggesting that eradicating polio may prove far harder than anyone thought, even in the developed world.
No one expects that the United States will be visited by the kind of outbreaks that recently flared up in Africa and Asia, frustrating the longstanding goal of eliminating polio for good by the end of this year. But the Long Prairie cases highlight a weakness in the worldwide campaign.
The 8-month-old Amish girl, whose name has been withheld by health officials, has an immune deficiency that makes her unable to rid her body of the virus.
How she contracted the virus remains a mystery. She may have been infected in a hospital by another immune-deficient patient who nursed it for years. A doctor or nurse may have served as a go-between. Or there may have been a chain of carriers in the Amish community. The virus is spread from stool to mouth, a surprisingly efficient form of transmission.
Regardless, the girl is now a wellspring for polio, a modern-day Typhoid Mary who can pass it along to others. Anyone who has not been vaccinated is...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And consider that polio can be dormant for 20-30 years before it goes full blown.
The question is where did this 8-month-old Amish baby contract this version of polio?
When did this happen? I thought I read about it several weeks ago. Or is this a different case?
Rats...
I was never vaccinated for Polio. Everybody else was, but I was allergic to the vaccine base. So I've always relied on if everyone else is vaccinated, there is noone who can give it to me.
I don't know if this is the same group or not(it seems likely that it is) - but there was a previous article about a family of Amish that the kids all had exposure. It was actually vaccine related. From an Oral Vaccine (which is no longer used in the states) that contained the live virus - presumably from Canada.
Interesting. I would like to read that. I always try to remember to stay away from folks whose immune systems are compromised whenever our children have vaccines, particularly the oral polio vaccine.
The oral polio vaccine contains a live virus that is easily spread to others via stools. That is why the US phased out this type of vaccine several years ago. It is speculated that this girl recently received the oral polio vaccine in another country.
I saw it reported elsewhere (I cannot recall where at the moment) that this was identified as the source of the polio infection in the other 4.
A Special Drug Just for You, at the End of a Long Pipeline
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unrelated link as they see fit.
It appears to be more on the same story.
"Dr" Robert Scott Bell.....are you listening?
Inbreeding causes Autism, not the vaccine. If daddy would just stay home, many half brothers and first cousins wouldn't be marrying each other.
Well, if you don't poop on other people, what's the problem with that?
Ping
There's a lot of people with 21st-century ways that think like that.
interesting. thanks.
Tell that to your 3 month old. It's not always that easy to avoid.
You might also find the link in comment# 10, "A Doctor for the future", interesting.
Thank you.
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