Children in California are battling a rare illness with Polio like symptoms. Doctors in California have yet to determine what is causing these symptoms in children. Over the last two years in California 20 children have become victim to this, resulting in paralyzed limbs. Doctors believe it is a disease but have not concluded what is actually causing the polio like symptoms in these children.
Now to give you all a little background on the Polio itself. There is no cure for this disease but vaccines are available for treatment. Immunizing children at a young age will hopefully stop the spread of Polio. Polio is contacted through person to person interaction. This disease attacks the spinal cord and brain causing what is called paralysis. Paralysis in other words means you can’t move. As mentioned earlier vaccinations for children at an early age is the best way to avoid catching the disease. Polio has been somewhat of a quiet topic until recently. Polio has recently made its mark in multiple African countries.
Paralysis isn’t the only thing that this disease will affect. Polio is known to cause breathing problems and death. I also discovered which in my opinion is the scariest issue regarding this disease is that about 95% of the time there are no symptoms. Polio is broken down into two categories: asymptomatic and symptomatic. Only about 4% of the time will an individual show symptoms and even if they do it could progressively get worse. People with low immune symptoms for instance children and women that are pregnant are vulnerable to this disease. Symptomatic polio can also be categorized as non paralytic and paralytic. Symptomatic polio is a very severe form and occurs 0.1 to 0.2% of all cases. Spinal polio, Bulbar polio, and bulbospinal are categorized in the symptomatic polio. Spinal polio attacks the spinal cord and causes the breathing problems and eventually paralysis. Bulbar polio attacks your senses for instance your vision and taste. Bulbospnal is both spinal and bulbar.
What exactly causes Polio? Areas with very poor sanitation allows the disease to easily spread. It can be spread in contaminated water and food a big problem in the countries within Africa. Polio is usually entered through the mouth and through contact of feces. If symptoms do occur a person with Polio can spread the disease 1-2 weeks after they notice symptoms, which I later stated is very rare that symptoms do occur.
Children in California are not alone however. Atlanta center for disease control issued a warning on September 26th to take notice in spinal cord abnormalities and limb weaknesses in MRIs. This warning was issued after nine children had a polio like illness. Discoveries were also discovered in Missouri, Massachusetts, and Michigan. California child Lucian Olivera is battling the symptoms now and it’s a sad story and we need to realize that this is not something we should take lightly. Lucians’ parents are reaching out to other parents with their children experiencing the same thing and wants them to know they may have been missed diagnosed.
Reading about Lucians’ story was inspirational to me. How could it be a person this young and children like him cope with such a horrible situation and still have the will power to make the most out of it? It’s been more than 30 years since the last case was discovered in the United States. It is important to note that parents need to get the right diagnosis if their children are experiencing these symptoms. We know that there is no cure but early vaccination is important to help prevent this disease.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141006-polio-california-disease-paralysis-children-health/http://www.cdc.gov/polio/about/index.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/155580.php
http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2012/06/11/the-cia-and-polio-in-pakistan/
I think it is important to note that all the victims of this mystery disease were vaccinated against Polio. It is a “seemingly” similar disease. I found an article, with its link below, about the disease and the possible causes to be very interesting. Particularly the point of wether or not enterovirus 68 could be a culprit, it was found in 2 of the 5 patients. It is a virus included in the Picornaviridae family, Polio also belongs to this group, according to the article. Of course the findings could just be coincidence but I believe it to be an interesting starting point for more research. Make sure to give it a read!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140227-polio-california-paralysis-virus-mystery/
I haven’t heard of polio being an issue at all. I’m glad you shared this and made me aware of the problems in Africa and with the children in California. The polio vaccine is so common in America that it’s hard to imagine not having access to this medicine. There definitely should be efforts to get the vaccine to countries, such as the ones in Africa, where polio is still prevalent. As for the children in California, that’s really bizarre. I wonder if it’s another form of polio that has become immune to the original vaccine. I hope there is some kind of treatment/cure very soon. I also agree vaccines are much more effective and should be used to prevent all types of diseases.
I think the most important part of this blog was the stress on getting the polio vaccination at a young age. It is the only way to ensure that children stay safe from the disease. This also brings up another discussion on the debate over vaccines and whether they are effective. I believe its a silly debate and vaccines are only beneficial but some people think otherwise and decide not to get them. Polio can be fully prevented by getting a vaccination and maybe vaccines should be sent to these countries in Africa with major Polio problems because that would definitely help. Really interesting post and I definitely agree about prevention through vaccines.