On March 3, 2014, The Boston Globe published an article called "Paralysis in children linked to polio-like virus, but it’s rare" by Deborah Kotz. The article discusses 20-25 cases of sudden cases of paralysis in California. California health officials believe that these sudden cases of paralysis are linked to a polio-like virus, enterovirus-68. They suspect that the virus in serious cases, like polio, could attack nerve cells in the spine sometimes causing irreversible paralysis in the arms and legs. These cases of paralysis did not respond to standard medical treatments such as steroids, like polio. Although enterovirus-68 is like polio but nobody is sure how common paralysis is in it, but officials are sure that is less common than with polio, the article states, "perhaps between 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100,000 infections." "“It sounds bad because it’s something that looks like polio,” Waubant said, “but the number of cases has been small considering how large California is. We don’t think it’s an epidemic and, if anything, it might have been a small outbreak of a rare infection,”" Kotz includes this quote from Dr. Emmanuelle Waubant, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco. I think that this quotes puts things into perspective that even though the idea of another polio-like epidemic is scary, this virus may not actually be a serious, global, threat.
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| Sofia Jarvis, 4, of Berkeley, Calif., with father Jeff Jarvis, is one of the affected children. |
This article connects with our current unit on the polio outbreak of the 1950's. The outbreak in 1950's effected the lives of thousands, with 57,628 reported cases in 1952 alone. Polio is a virus that is spread human to human by the oral-fecal route. In more serious cases of polio the patient will become paralyzed. In the article Kotz quotesDr. Al DeMaria saying, "“With polio, 1 in every 1,000 children who were infected developed paralysis,” …. “and at its height, polio caused 20,000 to 30,000 cases of paralysis per year.”" This connects to enterovirus-68 because the symptoms are similar to those of polio.
I thought this article was extremely interesting because I feel like polio does not get much mention recently because its not a prominent disease in today's society, but it something to be feared. This article reminded me that even if a disease is not necessarily coming back (such as polio) that other similar diseases can develop and be just as bad or worse. It's always scary to have a disease that is easily susceptible to children from human to human contact because young children don't understand the importance of washing their hands and taking the certain precautions they need to prevent the spread of disease. One thing that I found interesting in the article was that doctors do not have to report sudden cases of paralysis. I thought that this was unusual because if these cases remain unreported it could spread without people even realizing especially because these unexpected paralysis could be due to an infectious disease.
Original Article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/03/03/how-worried-should-about-new-polio-like-virus/D44YZgt3mKHSLgQLdvXYnN/story.html
cool article leah! I found it interesting how even though there were not as many cases to become as worried as people got during the 50's Polio outbreak, still a disease that is linked to similar symptoms of Polio shouldn't go unlooked at. I feel as though since polio is almost eradicated strains of less intense cases of polio are becoming overlooked. this is prevalent when they stated cases weren't even being reported...which could only be bad in the long run. hopefully this was only a short outbreak and this does not become a larger worry in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis polio-like virus reminds me of the multi-drug resistant TB that we are reading about in the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. The cases of paralysis did not respond to standard medical treatments similar to MDR-TB. I also liked the connection you made between it affecting children and them not necessarily washing their hands as much as adults do. I'm assuming that this polio-like virus is also spread through the oral-fecal route but I am unsure. I wonder if this virus is a mutation of Poliomyelitis...? I agree with you that doctors should be ordered to report all cases of paralysis becuase it indeed can spread without people realizing. Good article!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool article. I think it's scary that a polio-like virus is present anywhere, let alone the US. I thought it was interesting that it was called an "enterovirus," I'm pretty sure that means it affects the GI tract? If so, it resembles polio in its localization in the lower half of the body. Additionally, since polio is inherited via the oral-fecal route, it is possible that an enterovirus could also be acquired this way and hit hardest in the GI tract. Overall, considering this virus' similarity to polio, I think it would be interesting to see how the new virus is treated effectively in comparison to traditional polio treatment.
ReplyDeleteBefore I went into this class I thought that polio was eradicated but obviously not in this article. It's really sad that even though we think we are invincible with the vaccine, we still see cases today. It;s like they were saying in the documentary, how bacteria is fighting against us because it needs to survive somehow. I think it's kind of the same thing here, how this disease has reappeared in a similar way, in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool article. The one thing I felt while reading this was polio is not really in the news and people aren't really aware of it. Polio is a terrible virus and we need medicines to help prevent these breakouts of polio virus. It's crazy, people shouldn't get any disease to make them sick. Imagine how their families feel, wake up doing the same thing everyday watching their kids struggle. I really wish in this world we live in there were no more diseases.
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