Polio-Like Disease Appears in California Children

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/25/us/ap-us-polio-like-illness.html?hp

by ghshephard • 12 years ago

61 14 12 years ago

Well, that's not good.

yangtheman• 12 years ago

I just saw this on 11PM news on TV. This sounds serious, since it seems like there is no cure at this point and they have no idea the cause or how this is being spread. This needs more coverage.

ronaldx• 12 years ago

If you're looking for infotainment, there are plenty of other rare diseases and disabilities that also deserve coverage. Example that comes to mind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodding_disease

kevcampb• 12 years ago

Seeing this article, I can't help having horrible feelings of reading the following.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/us/rare-cancer-seen-in-41-...

Chilling, in context.

Lets hope it's nothing nearly as serious.

bertil2• 12 years ago

The BBC paper yesterday was trying to reassure people, I believe, precisely to avoid reactions like the three comments below. Comparing this to large epidemics is biased: you have forgotten the dozens of potential similar threats. Instead, you consider expert metrics, say, virality (which appears low).

k-mcgrady• 12 years ago

Link to yesterdays discussion on this (although it was a BBC article not NYT): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7289467

CWuestefeld2• 12 years ago

Given the observation "something medically bad is happening to kids", how to scientists get to the conclusion, "this is caused by virus xyz"?

I'm really curious what the roadmap for the research looks like. Because it seems to me that the potential search space -- all the things that could potentially cause problems -- is mind-bogglingly huge. And any given victim of the illness is likely to have some quirks - history of exposure to various stuff, family history of different diseases, an odd bacterium or two in the gut, etc.

How does it all get sorted out?

Fomite• 12 years ago

You look into things known to cause symptoms like these - enteroviruses in this case - and test for known versions in the patients. You send samples to labs to look for new, unknown viruses. You take pretty exhaustive biological and social histories from the patients, and look for commonalities - shared exposures, other underlying conditions, etc.

CWuestefeld2• 12 years ago

I've got a handle on all that stuff with looking for commonality. But how does one look for new, unknown viruses? I don't think you can just grow them in petri dishes like bacteria.

digikata• 12 years ago

This link provides a bit better technical coverage and context

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/02/puzzling-...

mariuolo• 12 years ago

At first I feared it was a consequence of vaccination controversies. This is even worse.

Polio-Like Disease Appears in California Children

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