More info on (and more cases of) polio in Minnesota
Yesterday's NY Times carried an article discussing the polio cases in an Amish settlement in Minnesota: 5 Cases of Polio in Amish Group Raise New Fears. I'd blogged about this previously (here and here). The article discusses more about the 8-month-old child who seems to be serving as a "polio Mary." She has an immune system deficiency, and doesn't seem to be clearing the virus. To date, there have been 5 cases in the Amish community there, and it's still uncertain how the child contracted the virus. Notes an official:
The child is in isolation at an undisclosed hospital...hopefully this will allow the transmission to cease within the community. In a piece of good news, the article does mention that the polio outbreak caused at least one famer get his kids vaccinated against polio, measles, mumps and rubella, and said several others have done the same. It's a start, at least.
"If that child is a message in a bottle," said Bruce Aylward, coordinator of the global polio eradication initiative at the World Health Organization, "it has just washed up on shore."
The child is in isolation at an undisclosed hospital...hopefully this will allow the transmission to cease within the community. In a piece of good news, the article does mention that the polio outbreak caused at least one famer get his kids vaccinated against polio, measles, mumps and rubella, and said several others have done the same. It's a start, at least.
