Wow! Polio in Minnesota

[minkydog]

Who woulda thought? Scary.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/08/n...&en=61342b98a157bd88&ei=5094&partner=homepage

 

[binny]

wow that is scary.

that poor baby I hope she is ok.

 

[minkydog]

I know. I can still remember when Polio came to our city--all the moms were scared and none of the kids were allowed to play in the pool that summer. In the 28yrs i've been a ped nurse i've only taken care of one child who had polio--he was in an iron lung machine. I didn't even know they still had those! i went to college with someone who had had it as a child and it came back again when she was an adult.

 

[gigglesnort]

Do they still vaccinate for polio? I remember the sugar-cube as a child, and I don't have any kids now, so I'm not sure.

 

[bananiem]

I couldn't get the link to work but if it's the story I think it is...The cases are in an Amish community and the children had never been vaccinated. Truly sad when it's preventable. I'm torn between letting people have their own beliefs and "live and let live" but I also feel sorry for the children who had no choice and had to trust their parents' "beliefs".

 

[monarchsfan16]

We were just talking about this in English class, half an hour ago. It's pretty scary.

 

[jennyl772003]

I thought I had heard that the first child was chronically ill. If that's the case, they probably wouldn't have vaccinated anyway. I can't remember where I heard that though.

 

[golfgal]

There have been 6 kids (maybe 5) that have contracted Polio this fall from that community. The first reported child did have some ongoing health problems. I posted about this about 3 weeks ago and there have been some other reported cases since I first posted.

 

[C.Ann]

My sister had polio when she was 14 - spent almost an entire year in a hospital that was quite a distance from our house.. I was only around 4 at the time and I remember sitting in the waiting room with my brother while my parents visited with her.. You could look out from the waiting room to this other room where they had all the iron lungs lined up, waiting to be used.. It was pretty scary to a 4-year-old..

My sister was lucky - she learned to walk again - but her right arm is practically useless, her legs are terribly weak - and now she suffers from post polio syndrome, a whole new set of health problems..

It's a horrible disease and I can't imagine why anyone would NOT want their child vaccinated against it..

 

[minkydog]

Do they still vaccinate for polio? I remember the sugar-cube as a child, and I don't have any kids now, so I'm not sure.

Yes, they still vaccinate for polio, but here in the U.S. they no longer use the live virus(sugar cube method). They give an injection that will not result in accidentally contracting polio and will not transmit it to anyone else. Elsewhere in the world they do still use some live virus vaccine.

 

[Deb in IA]

This is a prime example of why immunization is STILL important and relavant, even in a "low risk" population and location.