3 more polio cases found in state
Martiga Lohn, Star Tribune
Three more cases of polio virus infection have been identified in a central Minnesota Amish community where an infant was found to have the virus several weeks ago, state health officials said today.
Health officials said the cases aren't a threat to the general public because most people have been vaccinated against polio. But they said they expected to find more people carrying the virus within the Amish community, because some there refuse immunizations on religious grounds.
Officials would not identify the Amish community. They said it included some 100 to 200 people. The three new cases appeared among siblings in one family.
"This situation is not a risk to the general public because at least 98 percent of our children are immunized against polio,'' said Dr. Harry Hull, the state epidemiologist. "Polio immunization will protect you against polio infection and polio disease.''
Health investigators said there were direct links between the family of the three children and the family of the first infant found to have the virus. The families are not related by blood, health officials said.
None of the four children all younger than 16 have symptoms of paralytic polio, health officials said, and none were vaccinated against the illness. Health officials said they were working with the Amish community to determine who may have been exposed to the virus.
Hull said some parents in the community were declining to have their children immunized. The state cannot force the immunizations, he said. Because of that, he said it's possible the virus would spread to other Amish communities.
The first infant reported with the virus was the first reported case of polio nationally in five years. The baby had been diagnosed with immune system problems but didn't show symptoms of paralytic polio infection. The strain appeared to be related to the oral vaccine still used in some countries.
State and federal health officials were still investigating how the child became infected. Stool or spit from an infected person can transmit the virus.
Use of oral polio vaccine containing the live virus stopped in the United States in 2000, replaced with an injected vaccine made from the killed virus. The live-virus vaccine caused an annual average of eight cases of paralytic polio nationwide. The last naturally occurring case of polio in the United States was in 1979.
Minnesota's last case related to the live-virus vaccine occurred in 1992.
Health officials consider the disease eliminated in the Western Hemisphere. It persists in other parts of the world, with the vast majority of cases concentrated in India, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization
Martiga Lohn, Star Tribune
Three more cases of polio virus infection have been identified in a central Minnesota Amish community where an infant was found to have the virus several weeks ago, state health officials said today.
Health officials said the cases aren't a threat to the general public because most people have been vaccinated against polio. But they said they expected to find more people carrying the virus within the Amish community, because some there refuse immunizations on religious grounds.
Officials would not identify the Amish community. They said it included some 100 to 200 people. The three new cases appeared among siblings in one family.
"This situation is not a risk to the general public because at least 98 percent of our children are immunized against polio,'' said Dr. Harry Hull, the state epidemiologist. "Polio immunization will protect you against polio infection and polio disease.''
Health investigators said there were direct links between the family of the three children and the family of the first infant found to have the virus. The families are not related by blood, health officials said.
None of the four children all younger than 16 have symptoms of paralytic polio, health officials said, and none were vaccinated against the illness. Health officials said they were working with the Amish community to determine who may have been exposed to the virus.
Hull said some parents in the community were declining to have their children immunized. The state cannot force the immunizations, he said. Because of that, he said it's possible the virus would spread to other Amish communities.
The first infant reported with the virus was the first reported case of polio nationally in five years. The baby had been diagnosed with immune system problems but didn't show symptoms of paralytic polio infection. The strain appeared to be related to the oral vaccine still used in some countries.
State and federal health officials were still investigating how the child became infected. Stool or spit from an infected person can transmit the virus.
Use of oral polio vaccine containing the live virus stopped in the United States in 2000, replaced with an injected vaccine made from the killed virus. The live-virus vaccine caused an annual average of eight cases of paralytic polio nationwide. The last naturally occurring case of polio in the United States was in 1979.
Minnesota's last case related to the live-virus vaccine occurred in 1992.
Health officials consider the disease eliminated in the Western Hemisphere. It persists in other parts of the world, with the vast majority of cases concentrated in India, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization
