Polio-Like Disease Appears in California
Since 2012, a small number of children in the state have been afflicted with severe weakness or rapid paralysis in one or more limbs.
Since 2012, a small number of California children have been afflicted with severe weakness or rapid paralysis in one or more limbs.
The Associated Press via The Guardian reports:
The Los Angeles Times reported that state public health officials had been investigating the illness since a doctor requested polio testing for a child with severe paralysis in 2012. Since then, similar cases have sporadically been reported throughout the state.
Dr Carol Glaser, leader of a California department of public health team investigating the illnesses, said she was concerned about the request because polio had been eradicated in the US and the child had not travelled overseas.
The symptoms sometimes occur after a mild respiratory illness. Glaser said a virus that is usually associated with respiratory illness but which has also been linked to polio-like illnesses had been detected in two of the patients.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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