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 in central Minnesota, spreasing from an 8-th month old girl to four children on two neighbouring farms. 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 for harder than anyone thought, even in htedeveloped world.
No one expects tat the US will be visited by the kind of outbreaks that recently flared up in Africa and Asia, frustating 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 8th month old Amish girl, whose name has been with held by health officials,has an immune deficiency that makes her unable to 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. |
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| Posted : 11/9/2005 |
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