We Don't Know What It Is, Or Where It Comes From, But It's Nothing to Worry About

A study released on Feb. 24 by doctors at the University of California-San Francisco and Stanford University reported on at least five children that have been hit by weakness or paralysis in one or more limbs that mirrored polio effects.

“These five new cases highlight the possibility of an emerging infectious polio-like syndrome in California,” said co-author Emanuelle Waubant, an MD at UCSF.

The symptoms of those afflicted came in rapid fashion, reaching paralysis in a couple of days, the study found. Movement and sensation did not reemerge during the six-month timespan of the study, and spinal evaluations indicated a condition consistent with polio damage.

“They are absolutely not a cluster because they don’t go to the same school or live in the same town,” Waubant said. “These cases have been seen over the past year and a half.”

[...]

The condition has affected 20 children in California alone in the last 18 months.

[...]

All of the children had been vaccinated against polio, Waubant said, though two of the children tested positive for enterovirus-68, a virus associated with symptoms akin to polio.

[...]

“We would like to stress that this syndrome appears to be very, very rare,” said Stanford co-author Keith Van Haren, MD, in a statement.

  RT

Really? I’d call very, very rare something that affected one or two children in disparate parts of the world in twenty years.

“At this time, CDC does not think the situation in California is a cause for public concern,” Jamila H. Jones, a CDC public health educator, said in a statement to AP given before Boxer’s letter was received.

Really?

She added that the number of cases in California falls into a proportional rate considering the overall population.

For what?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.