posted 02-10-2002 02:26 PM            

"It's a common occurrence to see and smell a black cloud of smoke rising from behind a diesel school bus. We expect that inhaling these fumes outside the bus would be dangerous for our health-and it is. But does that same diesel exhaust pose a risk to children sitting inside the bus on their way to and from school? We initiated this study of diesel exhaust levels inside school buses to answer this question in light of the over-whelming evidence that diesel exhaust causes cancer and premature death and exacerbates asthma and other respiratory illnesses. In fact, government regulators estimate, based on lifetime risks, that diesel exhaust is responsible for a surprising 125,000 cancers nationwide. 1 Studies in California reveal that more than 70 percent of the risk of cancer from air pollution comes from diesel exhaust alone. 2"
http://www.mindfully.org/Air/Diesel-School-Buses-NRDC-CCA.htm

"Patterns of illness in American children have changed dramatically in this century. The ancient infectious diseases have largely been controlled. The major diseases confronting children now are chronic and disabling conditions termed the "new pediatric morbidity" -- asthma mortality has doubled; leukemia and brain cancer have increased in incidence; neurodevelopmental dysfunction is widespread; hypospadias incidence has doubled. Chemical toxicants in the environment as well as poverty, racism, and inequitable access to medical care are factors known and suspected to contribute to causation of these pediatric diseases. Children are at risk of exposure to over 15,000 high-production-volume synthetic chemicals, nearly all of them developed in the past 50 years. These chemicals are used widely in consumer products and are dispersed in the environment. More than half are untested for toxicity. Children appear uniquely vulnerable to chemical toxicants because of their disproportionately heavy exposures and their inherent biological susceptibility. To prevent disease of environmental origin in America's children, the Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHN) calls for a comprehensive, national, child-centered agenda. This agenda must recognize children's vulnerabilities to environmental toxicants. It must encompass a) a new prevention-oriented research focus; b) a new child-centered paradigm for health risk assessment and policy formulation; and c) a campaign to educate the public, health professionals, and policy makers that environmental disease is caused by preventable exposures and is therefore avoidable. To anchor the agenda, CEHN calls for long-term, stable investment and for creation of a national network of pediatric environmental health research and prevention centers. -- Environ Health Perspect 106(Suppl 3):787-794 (1998)... "
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/child1998/full/Suppl-3/787-794landrigan/landrigan-full.ht ml

"Over the past several years the incidence of a number of diseases has increased greatly. Asthma is perhaps the most important disease with an increasing incidence, but other diseases, such as allergic reactions, bronchitis and respiratory infections also have been increasing. The cause of these increases may be due at least in part to the effects of air pollution. This review will address the following questions: .... "
http://www.aqmd.gov/forstudents/Kleinman_article.htm

And finally here is an interesting article about children in one school coming down with a mysterious rash.

posted 02-10-2002 10:46 PM            

MollyGainYa, with love and sadness

posted 02-11-2002 12:37 AM            

It's damn sure no accident that we're seeing and experiencing what we are in escalating new maladies in all ages, but certainly, in our children.

This weekend, I drank too heavy from the well of reality and consequently predisposed myself to pulling in an uncomfortable physical condition manifesting at the top of my lungs. In other words, I got a bit overwhelmed by all the evil revealed in these articles that I read. I am on the heal today though.

A while back on some thread a CC Mbr, Delphi, referenced a number of sites to visit. Well, I went to a few of those including: http://www.nexusmagazine.com/mycoplasma.html

This is a 12 page article written by, Doanld W. Scott, MA, MSc, entitiled MYCOPLASMA - The Linking Pathogen in Neurosystemic Diseases. Several strains of mycoplasma have been "engineered" to become more dangerous. They are now being blamed for AIDS, cancer, CFS. CJD and other neurosystemic diseases.

The article is copyrighted (c) 2001. I strongly encourage all to read the entire article. Following are several excerpts that I have chosen to share here:

"There are 200 species of Mycoplasma. Most are innocuous and do no harm; only four or five are pathogenic. Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus strain) probably comes from the nucleus of the Brucella bacterium. This disease agent is not a bacterium and not a virus; it is a mutated form of the Brucella bacterium, combined with a visna virus, from which the mycoplasma is extracted.

"The pathogenic Mycoplasma used to be very innocuous, but biological warfare research conducted between 1942 and the present time has resulted in the creation of more deadly and infectious forms of Mycoplasma. Researchers extracted this mycoplasma from the Brucella bacterium and actually reduced the disease to a crystalline form. They "weaponised" it and tested it on an unsuspecting public in NOrth America.

"Dr. Maurice Hillerman, chief virologist for the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme, stated that this disease agent is now carried by everybody in North America and possibly most people throughout the world.

"According to Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, senior researcher at The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and one of America's top mycoplasma researchers, this disease agent causes many illnesses including AIDS, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn's colitis, Type I diabetes, multiple scelerosis, Parkinson's disease, Wegener's disease and collagen-vascular diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's.

"Dr. Charles Engel, who is with the US National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, stated the following at an NIH meeting on February 7, 2000: 'I am now of the view tha the probable cause of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia is the mycoplasma...'

"I have all the official documents to prove that mycoplasma is the disease agent in chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia as well as in AIDS, multiple sclerosis and many other illnesses. Of these, 80% are US or Canadian official government documents, and 20% are articles from peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The journal articles and government documents complement each other.

"The mycoplasma acts by entering into the individual cells of the body, depending upon your genetic predisposition. You may develop neurological diseases if the pathogen destroys certain cells in your brain, or you may develop Crohn's colitis if the pathogen destroys cells in the lower bowel. Once the mycoplasma gets into the cell, it can lie there doing nothing sometimes for 10, 20 or 30 years, but if a trauma occurs like an accident or a vaccination that doesn't take, the mycoplasma can become triggered.

"Many doctors don't know about this mycoplasma disease agent because it was developed by the US military in biological warfare experimentation and it was not made public. This pathogen was patented by the United States military and Dr Shyh-Ching Lo.

"They had produced a crystalline bacterial toxin extracted from the Brucella bacterium. The bacterial toxin could be removed in crystalline form and stored, transported and deployed without deteriorating. It could be delivered by other vectors such as insects, aerosol or the food chain (in nature it is delivered within the bacterium). But the factor that is working in the Brucellas is the mycoplasma.

"Brucella is a disease agent that doesn't kill people; it disables them.

"One salt shaker of the pure disease agent in a crystalline form could sicken the entire population of Canada. It is absolutely deadly, not so much in terms of killing the body but disabling it.

"Because the crystalline disease agent goes into solution in the blood, ordinary blood and tissue tests will not reveal its presence. The mycoplasma will only crystallise at 8.1 pH, and the blood has a pH of 7.4

"They tested dispersal methods for Brucella suis and Brudella melitensis at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in June and September 1952. Probably, 100% of us now are infected with Brucella suis and Brucella melitensis.

"In 1953, the US Government asked the Canadian Government if it could test a chemnical over the city of Winnipeg. It was a big city with 500,000 people, miles from nowhere. The American military sprayed this carcinogenic chemical in a 1,000%-attenuated form, which they said would be so watered down that nobody would get very sick; however, if people came to clinics with a sniffle, a sore throa or ringing in their ears, the researchers would be able to determine what percentage would have developed cancer if the chemical had been used at full strength.

"...the Pentagon held a press conference on May 14, 1997, where they admitted what they had done...that in 1953 it had obtained permission from the Canadian Government to fly over the city of Winnipeg and spray out this chemical--which sifted down on kids going to school, housewives hanging out their laundry and people going to work. US Army planes and trucks released the chemical 36 times between July and August 1953. The Pentagon got its statistics, which indicated that if the chemical released had been full strength, approximately a third of the population of Winnipeg would have developed cancers over the next five years.

"The US Army actually conducted a series of simulated germ warfare tests over Winnipeg. The Pentagon lied about the tests to the mayor, saying that they were testing a chemical fog over the city, which would protect Winnipeg in the event of a nuclear attack.

"A report commissioned by US Congress, chaired by Dr Rogene Henderson, lists 32 American towns and cities used as test sites as well.

End of exerpts.

Are we being sprayed again? The answer to that is, "of course we are!" But, "What are we getting sprayed with?" is the 64,000 dollar question. On one hand, our skys may be now getting sprayed with that which will make the lower atmosphere a good conductor for HAARP. On the other hand, maybe those chemicals are coupled with some crystalline Burcella to slowly weed out the population by way of disabling it (if thousands of people started abrubtly dropping dead that would be way too obvious). Disabling the population by way of unexplainable diseases is much more effective and, too, this way the drug manufactures can make their money off selling "medicinal hope" to the very condition they took part in creating.

posted 02-11-2002 12:50 AM            

Here is an update of the story concerning the mysterious rash from the Associated Press and was carried by MSNBC.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

"PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 9 — Doctors were awaiting test results Saturday from several suburban schools where students broke out in red, itchy rashes."

"DR. NORMAN L. SYKES, a Thomas Jefferson University dermatologist, said authorities are waiting for results of tests for fifth disease, a common ailment that causes a mild rash. Tests of one student and one teacher were negative, he said.

"Investigators are looking into whether environmental factors, such as cleaning agents or some form of allergen, could have caused the rashes that have struck more than 100 students since Jan. 31.

They are also checking whether the schools have common sources of food or other other schools that have reported rashes, Sykes said.

The rashes have been reported in at least eight schools some 20 miles apart in the suburbs 35 miles north of Philadelphia..."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/703534.asp?pne=11947#BODY

posted 02-11-2002 02:06 PM            

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

"Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a viral disease of the lungs. It is one of the most important causes of lower respiratory tract illness in infants and young children. RSV is spread by contact with droplets from the nose or throat of an infected person. Persons with mild infections usually get better without treatment. Severely ill children often need to be hospitalized. There is currently no vaccine to prevent RSV infection. The best ways to prevent the spread of RSV are to cover coughs and sneezes and to wash hands often and well. Intravenous immune globulin treatment has recently been approved for use in high-risk infants."

http://www.astdhpphe.org/infect/rsv.html

As I searched for more information on RSV, I came upon a bulletin from the Public Health Laboratory Service that was last updated April 6, 2001 concerning cases in England and Wales. according to the bulletin, there were 3,500 cases reported in 1990 and as many as 4,500 in 1992 with an average of 2,500 reports per year till 2001.

As I skimmed down through the information I found something a little bit disturbing under section 4.3.

"4.3. Vaccine - There are no vaccines against RSV in use at present. In the USA, trials are being carried out on candidate vaccines, and these vaccines are expected to be licensed for use in elderly people in the USA in about five to seven years time. "
http://www.phls.co.uk/seasonal/rsv/RSV_previous.htm

It is just a little curious to me that RSV has been around since 1990, if that is what we actually have here, that we have not come up with a vaccine for it yet and are only conducting trials now. As I looked even deeper, I found more information concerning RSV and that it had supposedly been around since the 1980's. In a report by a Dr. Len Leshin, MD, FAAP, I found this information.

"In 1996, the FDA approved a preventative treatment for RSV called RespiGam® (RSV-IGIV). RespiGam® is made from plasma taken from large numbers of normal, healthy individuals, and contains a high concentration of protective antibodies against RSV. These antibodies do not prevent RSV infections, but do help protect children against the most serious consequences of the virus. In a large, multi-center study, the use of RespiGam decreased the need for hospitalization by 38% from the non-treated group. At the present time, it is indicated for children under two years of age who are considered to be at "high risk" for RSV infections: being born premature (5 or more weeks before the due date), or having a chronic lung condition such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Children with cyanotic heart defects should not get RespiGam due to side effects involving the circulation. "
http://www.ds-health.com/rsv.htm

The reason that I included the above information is that there seems to be a disease that has only seen about 2,500 reports a year on average in Europe and some 90,000 reports here. I have tried to find the morbidity and mortality statistics in the European reports but have had little luck yet. However, as I mentioned before, out of the 90,000 American reports, 4,500 resulted in death. What was also curious to me is that a preventative treatment for RSV was made out of human plasma. And if I remember correctly, wasn't there a biological component in some chemtrails?

Here is sometihng I found that is just a little wierd from the Baylor College of Medicine.

This year (2001) will be the fourth year of this trial. In the first three years of this trial, more than 9,700 children from the Temple-Belton area have received more than 14,000 doses of an investigational nasal spray flu vaccine. The vaccine was generally well tolerated and no serious illnesses were related to the vaccine. This investigational nasal spray flu vaccine will be referred to as the study vaccine.
http://www.sw.org/res/flu/flu.htm

Then from the American Lung Association came a report in 1996 concerning children in daycare settings coming down with a wheezing illness.

NEW YORK Children ages 2 and younger in day care are three times as likely as kids not attending day care to have recurrent wheezing-associated respiratory illness, and twice as likely to suffer from all lower respiratory illness such as bronchitis or croup, according to a study published by the American Lung Association.

http://www.lungusa.org/press/medical/medday.html

posted 02-11-2002 10:13 PM            

MollyGainYa, so sorry to hear of your daughter's illness. I think you are doing the right thing with natural and herbal products. All the best to you.

posted 02-13-2002 08:19 AM            

Mysterious rash shuts down elementary school

SYLVANIA, Ohio - School officials canceled classes for the rest of the week yesterday at an elementary school where dozens of students have developed mysterious rashes in recent weeks.
While the outbreak has alarmed parents in this Toledo suburb, the rashes are relatively harmless and clear up several hours after they develop, health officials say.
About 60 cases have been reported at Central Elementary School. Classes were expected to resume next week at another location, school district spokeswoman Nancy Crandell said. The students were staying at home on calamity days.
http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/archives3/oct01/102401/b5.html

WASAGA BEACH — A meeting held Monday night to discuss health concerns at a local school was punctuated by a young female student who began to exhibit symptoms of a mysterious rash which has kept the school closed since last Thursday.
Another closed parent/teacher meeting will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at St. Noel.
Lorie Hutton, who is the parent of a Grade 2 student at the school, and was present at Monday’s closed-door meeting, said the girl stood up and told the assembled panel of school board representatives she was getting the rash just from sitting in the St. Noel Chabanel gymnasium.
A specialist examined the rash, but it is unknown what was causing the rash on the young girl, who was around 10 or 11 years of age, according to Hutton.
http://www.theenterprisebulletin.com/archives/022301/news1.html

Rash Has Officials Scratching Their Heads
Mysterious Outbreak Afflicts Manassas Middle School Marsteller Middle School students are coming down with a mysterious rash that still has medical officals looking for answers. (Larry Kobelka - For The Washington Post)

By Christina A. Samuels and Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 30, 2001; Page B01 Three nurses sit in the Marsteller Middle School library, taking the temperature of dozens of students complaining of a red, itchy rash on their arms, legs, chests or backs. A steady trickle of parents arrives at the Manassas school, picking up sick kids in the middle of the day.
In the last 10 days, one-third of the 940-member student body has been ill, and the biggest number yet in one day -- 161 -- got sick yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A36077-2001Nov29

Dec 6, 2001

Rash outbreaks still vex school officials

BY LOUISE CANNON
lcannon@potomacnews.com
MANASSAS -- School officials reported six more cases of a mysterious rash at Marsteller Middle School on Wednesday and 66 cases at 17 other schools, an indication that the problem may be spreading.After meeting with about 100 Marsteller parents Tuesday night, a panel of seven school and health officials was unable to answer some questions posed by parents, many annoyed by the mystery surrounding the rashes.More than one-third of Marsteller students and teachers came down with the rash in the last two weeks, as many as 161 cases in a single day. The mysterious rash started popping up at as many as 19 county schools late last week, further baffling school and health officials. Alison Ansher, a doctor with the Prince William Health District, said Tuesday that an investigation is under way to track how and when the rash appeared, and hopefully find out what is causing the ailment

http://www.manassasjm.com/news/archive/MGBLIRA6WUC.html

Nov 29, 2001
Rash plagues 14 schools

BY LOUISE CANNON
lcannon@potomacnews.com
A mysterious skin rash that popped up in a Manassas middle school last week has also been found at 13 other schools throughout the county, plaguing more than 350 students and staff members. Superintendent Edward Kelly said the 28 new cases of an itchy skin irritation in 13 county schools Thursday adds to the frustration of finding out what is causing the rashes at Marsteller Middle School. About 161 Marsteller Middle School students experienced rashes and fevers Thursday, bringing the total to 329 cases at the Manassas school in the last two weeks.

http://www.potomacnews.com/news/archive/MGBAA1ZHNUC.html

Mystery Rash With Fever Plagues
14 County Schools In Virginia
By Louis Cannon
PatomacNews.com
11-30-1

A mysterious skin rash that popped up in a Manassas middle school last week has also been found at 13 other schools throughout the county, plaguing more than 350 students and staff members. Superintendent Edward Kelly said the 28 new cases of an itchy skin irritation in 13 county schools Thursday adds to the frustration of finding out what is causing the rashes at Marsteller Middle School.

http://www.rense.com/general17/mysteryrash.htm

Rashes Reported at More Quakertown Schools

QUAKERTOWN, PA. - February 5, 2002 —

A Bucks County elementary school will remain closed for the second day in a row on Wednesday as authorities investigate a mysterious rash that has affected dozens of students. Officials from the Richland Elementary School in Quakertown said Tuesday that 80 students have been found to have the red, itchy rash since it was first reported Thursday. Officials said 28 students were sent home Monday. The St. Luke Quakertown Hospital treated 54 students for the rash on Thursday. Another eight children and two teachers were sent home on Friday after developing symptoms. Superintendent Jim Scanlon said air and water samples were taken at the school, which was closed Tuesday, and some students would be tested.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/02052002_nw_rashesspread.html

Reports of rash spread to three more schools
Two are in Quakertown, one in Montgomery County.

By Dalondo Moultrie
Of The Morning Call

February 8, 2002

Two more schools in the Quakertown Community School District and a school in Montgomery County reported students with rashes Thursday.

As test results in the Quakertown district ruled out water as the culprit, 12 students at Quakertown Community High School and 20 at Neidig Elementary School complained of itchy skin, said Superintendent Jim Scanlon, bringing the total to 131.
http://www.mcall.com/all-a1_2rashfolofeb08.story?coll=all-homepage-utl

Mystery rash forces Quakertown to shut 2nd elementary school
District says environment, not virus, causing skin ill affecting nearly 100.

By Dalondo Moultrie
Of The Morning Call

February 7, 2002

The Quakertown Community School District has closed a second elementary school because officials don’t know what’s causing a rash that parents fear is spreading.

After examining about 30 students Wednesday, doctors believe the cause is environmental, not viral or infectious.

posted 02-14-2002 12:02 PM            

That gets me back to wondering about Aspartame (used as a sweetener), as a food additive that is causing so many health problems, with the FDA's approval!

Many diabetics have gone from sugar to these Aspartame-spiked food and drink products! FDA has also suppressed the knowledge and use of natural sweeteners like Stevia in deference to the pharmaceutical cartel that pushes Aspartame (FDA also okayed cyclamates and Sacharin, cancer-causing 'sweeteners' for the past 40 years)!

posted 02-14-2002 10:04 PM            

Concern Over Rise In Diabetes In Children

North Americans are raising a generation of couch potatoes and big eaters, and are cultivating a silent new epidemic of adult-type diabetes among children and teens. The most common form of diabetes, called type 2, normally affects overweight adults over age 45, but several studies presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in San Diego documented a striking increase in the disease among young people. Many of these youngsters go undiagnosed and could develop severe complications by the time they reach 30, researchers warned. "Something needs to be done before the problem gets even worse. We're going to have young people with diseases we associate with old age, such has heart disease and stroke," said Robin S. Goland, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York. Goland and other researchers suggested screening for the disease among youth, and pleaded for new programs to teach children better eating habits and to help them get outside and play. Goland's group assessed 21 children and teens of various ethnic
backgrounds and found they all had extremely high blood sugars. They ranged in age from 10 to 17, but apparently already had the disease for a long time, she said. "This leads me to worry there are many more undiagnosed," Golan said. "What we don't know is the extent of the problem."

http://www.applesforhealth.com/kiddia1.html

More Children Are Being Diagnosed With Diabetes!Thousands of children in North America are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a condition that used to be called adult-onset diabetes, in part because it was so rare in children. There are also many more such cases in children that go undetected. In a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), doctors noted that not only is diabetes in children on the increase, but that often type 2 diabetes is not being detected because physicians falsely believe only adults can get it.
Epedemic LevelsAccording to the Alexandria, Va.-based ADA, diabetes is reaching epidemic levels as a result of the greater prevalence of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Approximately 16 million people in the United States have diabetes; 90 to 95 percent of these have type 2 diabetes. Untreated, What Can HappenUntreated diabetes can have dire consequences. Because children are not routinely screened for type 2 diabetes, by the time they are diagnosed they may have high blood pressure or severe hyperglycemia, or elevated blood-sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to make sufficient insulin, or properly utilize the insulin it makes. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to blindness, leg amputations, kidney disease, heart attack and stroke.
http://www.health-doc.com/healtharticles/Diabetes-children.html

Type II Diabetes:
A Growing Epidemic Part II—Diabetes in children By Sheridan Waldrop, BSN, RN, CDE Editor's note: This is the second feature in a continuing series on diabetes care. Type II diabetes has traditionally been diagnosed in clients over age 40. This population segment is increasing in our country as the baby boomers are growing older and people are living longer. Health care providers will be seeing more type II diabetic patients, since current statistics show 18.4 percent of people over the age of 65 are diabetic. People with diabetes also represent 18 percent of all nursing home residents and tend to be younger than nondiabetic residents.1 But in recent years, another alarming trend involving type II diabetes and children has also become more evident. Dr. Philip Zeitler, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Science Center-Boulder, is investigating the incidence of type II diabetes in this population. In his study involving Cincinnati area youths age 19 and younger, Zeitler found that in 1994 the number of type II cases in this population rose to 33 percent compared to 3-10 percent of new diabetes cases prior to 1992. The increased numbers of type II diabetes in youth are being reported in other areas of the country as well.
http://www.advancefornurses.com/pastarticles/nov20_00feature2.html

Increase in Diabetes Among Children and Teens

posted 02-14-2002 11:40 PM            

eating habits are the problem, it is much easier for a....ahemm....parent to give children candy than to peel an orange or cut up an apple...

I recently read that if a child gets 2-4 serving of fruit a day the chances of diabetes later in life is reduced to nil...

posted 02-15-2002 10:29 AM            

If the increase in diabetes is only the result of improper eating habits, then it's obvious to me that TV and TV conditioning/programming are largely to blame along with the inability or desire of people to turn it off and pay attention to what's happening to us as a society; chemtrails, corrupt FDA, phony elections, etc.

quote:

---

http://www.altmedicine.com/FrameSet.asp

Welcome to what we hope are the most-helpful alternative, complementary and preventive health-news pages on the Internet.

As journalists, we wish to provide you with news and information that will keep you up-to-date on the latest happenings in this rapidly growing field.

In selecting these pages, we:

Thoroughly searched the Internet to try to bring you some of the most informative and credible sites we could find. However, we wish that some sites would have carried more scientific evidence.

Added a substantial number of excellent conventional health sites to provide a truly integrative approach.

Included a number of sites that are updated daily and weekly to keep you on top of breaking health news-both alternative and conventional.

Be aware that alternative health and healing covers everything from pure hogwash to promising and proven therapies. Also take note that alternative medicine should be considered a supplement to - not a replacement for - traditional medicine.

---

posted 02-15-2002 08:25 PM            

PHILADELPHIA –– Hundreds of youngsters in at least seven states have broken out in a mysterious rash, and some health investigators suspect it might be caused by a new or yet-to-be-identified virus.
for more... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17487-2002Feb15.html

posted 02-15-2002 08:33 PM            

quote:

---

"For something like this to occur almost simultaneously in different parts of the country is, to my knowledge, unprecedented," said Dr. Norman Sykes, who examined about 30 suburban Philadelphia students who came down with the rash this month.

In the Quakertown Community School District, where nearly 170 students at all nine schools were confirmed to have the rash, an environmental company collected air and water samples and examined carpets, floor mats, vacuum bags and clothing, but all tested negative for contaminants.

"We may never know what this thing is," said Quakertown Superintendent Jim Scanlon.

---

posted 02-15-2002 10:10 PM            

These are some of the other highlights from the article that I found quite interesting.

Students in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state have complained about rashes on the face, arms, legs and body. For the most part, the rash goes away when the students leave school. (We definitely have some kind of problem here)

Most school systems have ruled out an environmental cause, but not the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Wash., where more than 50 students and teachers complained about a rash.(They haven't got a clue what's causing it)

Sykes, a dermatologist and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, suspects the culprit in Quakertown is either a mutation of the childhood illness known as fifth disease or a virus not yet known to science." (A genetic mutation or a virus not yet known to man?)

Scanlon, the Quakertown superintendent, believes some of the rashes might have been caused by psychosomatic "hysteria." And some rashes were not rashes at all - high school students rubbed themselves with sandpaper in a futile attempt to get the school shut down, he said. (psychomatic hysteria and students rubbing themselves with sandpaper can be ruled out.}

"We sat there itching and then it got all red and bumpy and then it started stinging. I put a paper towel on it so it wouldn't burn that much," said 8-year-old Samantha Makl, who went to the hospital on the first day of the Quakertown outbreak.(Sounds like an alergic reaction or exposure to a caustic chemical. Maybe something being sprayed by Jets?)

As you can see by my previous posts, this problem has been affecting children in different locations for a while now but is now only beginning to get media coverage.

posted 02-15-2002 11:53 PM            

Skin Rashes Linked To Food Allergies In Kids

MONTREAL, QC -- March 5, 1998 -- The prevalence of food allergy in kids with skin rashes seems to be considerably higher than in the general population, according to a study published in journal Pediatrics Electronic Pages. Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that physicians evaluate kids with skin rashes for possible food allergies.

Studies have shown that atopic dermatitis (AD), a form of eczema, is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory skin disorder that usually begins in infancy or early childhood and involves the cheeks, hands and feet. Research has found that about 60 percent of kids with AD evaluated by double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge experienced a positive reaction to food.

The children in the current study were selected from a group of children six months to 20 years with a history of a persistent eczematous rash in two or more predilection sites despite the use of topical corticosteroids who had been referred to a pediatric dermatologist.

Patients were assigned an AD symptom score and were screened for food-specific serum IgE antibodies to six which are known to be the most allergenic in children foods (milk, egg, wheat, soy, peanut, fish). The levels of food-specific serum IgE were determined by the CAP System fluoroscein-enzyme immunoassay (CAP); patients with a value 0.7 kIUa/L were invited for an additional allergy evaluation. Those with CAP values below the cutoff were considered not food allergic.

Kids who met one of the following criteria for at least one food were considered allergic: reaction on food challenge; CAP value more than the 95 percent confidence interval predictive for a reaction; convincing history of an acute significant (hives, respiratory symptoms) reaction after the isolated ingestion of a food to which there was a positive CAP or prick skin test.

Of the 41 children with positive specific IgE values, 31 were evaluated further, 19 underwent a total of 50 food challenges, with 11 kids experiencing 18 positive challenges (94 percent with skin reactions). Six children had a convincing history with a predictive level of IgE; five had a convincing history with positive, indeterminate levels of IgE; and one child had predictive levels of IgE (to egg and peanut) without a history of an acute reaction.

The results found that about one third of the children in the study (37 percent) had clinically significant IgE-mediated food hypersensitivity without a significant difference in age or symptom score between those with or without food allergy.

http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/5fcaa.htm

posted 02-16-2002 04:36 PM            

Outbreak of pertussis in New York termed `smoldering disease'

Nearly 100 cases have been confirmed, and many more are expected.
by Tom Rosenthal

November 1999 MAYVILLE, N.Y. - An outbreak of pertussis, which medical authorities believe may have started in a local hospital, has erupted in the upstate New York county of Chautauqua with nearly 100 confirmed cases. The outbreak is expected to continue spreading for about the next four months."We're still in the middle of this," Robert Burke, MD, Chautauqua County Health Commissioner, said of the outbreak of the upper respiratory infection that began in August.

Burke has called it the largest outbreak of pertussis in the county.By the third week of October, medical officials had identified 93 cases that met the case definition of a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and a 14-day cough. Burke said approximately 750 people have been tested. Of the approximately 500 results that have come back, 166 non-cases were found. These people had a positive PCR but had a history of less than 14 days of coughing, said Burke.

The remaining 250 people tested are termed pending cases because they have not been coughing for 14 days, yet.Burke said an instructive aspect of the pending cases is that the majority of these cases were asymptomatic in that they had no history of coughing.

With the assistance of officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "we got information out to local physicians - look only at symptomatic individuals," said Burke. There have been six hospitalizations, Burke said, noting that the outbreak has swept across a broad range of county residents, with the oldest a 90-year-old nursing home resident and the youngest a 1-month-old baby. All of those hospitalized are children younger than 6 months who have not yet been fully immunized against whooping cough with three doses of pertussis vaccine.

Burke said the overwhelming cases of the disease are young people who have had their three vaccinations as infants, but whose immunity to pertussis is now waning. Although fully immunized individuals in the age range of 8 to 10 years are being infected, it is a milder form of the disease than commonly associated with
pertussis. "We're just seeing people with bad coughs. That's what is interesting about the outbreak," said Burke. "This is very different from the traditional whooping cough that we've been trained to see. It's a subtle disease in many people, but you don't have a secondary illness like pneumonia.

"The outbreak is similar to those that have occurred recently in Cincinnati and in nearby Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y., two years ago, according to Burke. The infection is being treated with erythromycin, which Burke termed "an awful drug" because it can cause diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, but is effective in containing the spread of the highly contagious disease.

The drug is also being prescribed for those in close contact of confirmed cases. While it may be some time before Burke and his colleagues will be able to get the time to map the cases and track down the initial outbreak, he suspects that it may originate with a teenager who was brought to a local hospital's emergency room. He said the patient was apparently misdiagnosed as having asthma. The teen returned to the hospital several times, still complaining of asthma-like symptoms, but it turned out to be whooping cough. The repeat visits resulted in a staff infection, said Burke.

Burke said that two local hospitals have "almost been wiped out" because of the number of staff who are now symptomatic. He said that in one maternity ward, three nurses appear to have whooping cough, while about five staff members of a single emergency room have contracted the disease."Every doctor in family practice is howling with the workload of telephone traffic" as a result of the outbreak, Burke said. "If this gets into your community, it can eat up your office."The disease is jumping from family to family within a community, and then from town to town. It has affected the college communities of Dunkirk-Fredonia, where a state university campus of 35,000 is located, and then spread to smaller towns. It has radiated in every direction, he said. "We are dealing with a smoldering disease."

I became curious about whooping cough because someone had mentioned it to me and that it was reaching epidemic proportions. This is what I found.

Whooping Cough Explosion
By Jenifer Joseph
ABCNEWS.com
March 10 — Pediatric nurse Susie Glenn and her teenage daughter were literally sick to their stomachs with a terrible cough that persisted for three months.

They coughed so violently that they'd choke and vomit, a situation that left them both exhausted. Doctors first diagnosed their ills as bronchitis, then pneumonia. But none of the medications they prescribed for those ailments did much good.

After three months of coughing hell, Glenn finally returned to work, at the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center. The center's director, Dr. Henry Shinefield, overheard one of her hacking fits and diagnosed it immediately: whooping cough.

Most people no longer worry about this bacterial infection—also known as pertussis—a once-deadly childhood disease that was virtually wiped out by vaccines. (Pertussis is the "p" in DPT shots.)

In the 1940s, 200,000 Americans, mostly children under 10 years old, came down with whooping cough every year. By 1980, widespread vaccinations had pushed the numbers down to about 1,000 cases.

But researchers at the infectious diseases conference now under way in Atlanta are reporting an alarming trend: the re-emergence of this age-old disease. As of 1996, some 7,800 U.S. cases were diagnosed, says Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist Dr. Dalya Guris, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/whooping0310.html

Whooping cough called 'outbreak' at high school
By Kristi Palma
Eagle-Tribune Writer HAVERHILL -- Health officials are now calling the case of whooping cough at Haverhill High an "outbreak," after five new students were diagnosed with the highly contagious disease over the weekend.But Pediatrician Carl F. Rosenbloom said the disease is not serious, and urged people not to panic.
"I think it's something that we will be able to contain relatively quickly," he said.Dr. Rosenbloom said his office has been "totally inundated with calls," and there are now seven Haverhill High students who tested positive with the diseasehttp://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20001107/FP_005.htm

Whooping Cough Outbreak Is Reminder to Immunize
(Little Rock, Arkansas – October 4, 2001) – A current outbreak of whooping cough in Arkansas reinforces the need to vaccinate children against the highly contagious disease according to physicians at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a bacterial infection of the respiratory system that can spread easily among children and adults, but is most serious for young children, particularly infants, according to Dr. Gary Wheeler, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at ACH. More than 50 cases of the disease have been confirmed among junior high students in Murfreesboro this week.
http://www.ach.uams.edu/whatscurrent/whooping_cough_outbreak_is_remin.htm

Whooping cough outbreak reported here

Whooping cough has been occurring at a higher frequency statewide this year, and also in Yamhill County.

Since the beginning of 2000, there have been at least 10 cases diagnosed in Yamhill County, most in the Newberg area. The Oregon Health Division counted 57 cases statewide this year, compared to 21 by the same date last year.

There are important facts to be aware of with whooping cough, also called pertussis.
It is normally a childhood disease, but in recent years has been seen more frequently in teenagers and adults. These age groups with pertussis may not have the typical symptoms that are seen in infants and therefore may not be diagnosed early. They can then transmit the disease to susceptible people, including unvaccinated infants.
The disease is most dangerous to infants, especially those under six months, and may result in death. Infants and small children can be protected from pertussis through vaccination and by promptly diagnosing and treating all people with symptoms of whooping cough. http://www.sheridansun.com/News/2000/0719/Community/32.html

Whooping Cough Identified in Murfreesboro School

Contact: Dr. David Bourne, ADH NW Regional Medical Leader
Arkansas Department of Health
(501) 396-2023 (pager)

October 5, 2001 Murfreesboro—An outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) has been identified in Murfreesboro. The Health Department confirms today that several school students have positive cultures and more than 50 people have signs and symptoms consistent with the illness. Health Department colleagues are working closely with local doctors, the schools and community leaders to stem the outbreak.

Keys in controlling the outbreak are to ensure vaccination of children and to treat cases and their close contacts with appropriate antibiotics. Children routinely should receive four doses of a vaccine (DTaP) by 15 months of age and an additional dose of DTaP before they start school. As a control measure, the Health Department has recommended accelerating the vaccine schedule for infants, starting at six weeks of age instead of two months, and with a shorter interval between the next three doses (this is for children in Pike County only).

Those diagnosed with pertussis should stay home from school or work until after the fifth day of antibiotic treatment to prevent the spread of the disease. Close contacts need preventive treatment but may continue routine activities if they have no symptoms.
http://www.healthyarkansas.com/news/pr_whooping%20cough_100501.html

Whooping cough keeps 450 absent BY CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 11, 2001
MADISON - About 450 students were still absent yesterday from Madison and Orange County schools because of a minor outbreak of whooping cough, a contagious respiratory illness that has cropped up recently in both counties."I think people are very skittish," said Cathy Benner, the assistant superintendent for Orange County schools. "But we think there are kids out that need to be back in school."A total of 400 students were sent home Tuesday from Orange schools because of the whooping cough scare. About 350 students were absent yesterday.Benner said only two cases of whooping cough have been confirmed in the school system - one a student and the other a teacher.David J. Baker, superintendent of the Orange school system, sent a letter to parents yesterday asking them to send their children back to school."The Virginia Department of Health has assured us that the majority of those sent home should return to school and do not present a health risk to them- selves or others," Baker said. "The only people that require continued exclusion are those with symptoms of whooping cough or those who have been in contact with a confirmed whooping cough case and refuse to take the recommended medication."
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/November%202001/WhoopCough450Absent.htm

Saturday, December 29, 2001
More cases of whooping cough reported

Health Department officials unavailable in face of local outbreak

FRANK WALLIS
Bulletin Staff WriterOfficials with the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) who, perhaps, could answer questions about a possible outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis) in Baxter and surrounding counties were on vacation or otherwise unavailable Friday. The Baxter Bulletin publicly confirmed two local cases of whooping cough on Thursday, thanks to Dr. Greg Elders who said he was aware of one case that surfaced at a local preschool, and a second case involving a school-age child, diagnosed last week. Friday, a local pediatrician, Dr. Perry Wilbur, reported he has treated seven patients with whooping cough since Thanksgiving. He said the most recent case at his offices was diagnosed Thursday. A spokesman for Wilbur's office said reports of the diagnosis were forwarded to health officials in Baxter, Marion and Stone counties. The Baxter Bulletin attempted unsuccessfully Thursday and Friday to obtain comprehensive statistics on the presence of the disease in Baxter and surrounding counties. On Friday, Richard Taffner, director of the Baxter County Health Unit was on vacation. A spokesman for the unit referred a reporter to Linda Glidden, ADH communicable diseases nurse at Little Rock. Glidden, too, was on vacation. Bill Ledford, a vaccine distribution specialist who was answering the telephone for a secretary at Glidden's office, referred a reporter to Hazel Mabry, another ADH communicable diseases nurse. Mabry, too, was on vacation. A secretary at Mabry's office referred a reporter to Deloris Brown of ADH Communicable Diseases Division at Harrison. Brown was on vacation. A reporter next called the offices of ADH Director Faye Boozman who was out of the office probably until Monday. A spokesman for Boozman was uncertain that Boozman would be back in his offices on Monday.http://baxterbulletin.com/news/stories/20011229/localnews/1386353.html

Here is another article concerning a mysterious outbreak of whooping cough in Australia that caught my attention

Media Release - for immediate release - Tuesday August 8th, 2000

Whooping cough outbreak in highly vaccinated Hunter Valley raises questions.

Questions are being asked about vaccination as a result of the most highly vaccinated areas in the country experiencing intense whooping cough outbreaks while areas with very low coverage are not experiencing any outbreaks at all.

The Hunter Valley boasted in June that its vaccination coverage was the second highest in the country, at 92% for the under 18 month group, and 89.5% for the over 18 month group. The same month it had a 124% increase in reported cases of whooping cough. Yet in the far North Coast of NSW, parts of which have only a third of the national average coverage, there have not been any reported cases of the disease.

Bronwyn Hancock, co-ordinator of Vaccination Information Service, which provides independent information from medical research on vaccination, says that this type of situation is commonly reported in published medical literature and illustrates the documented effect of vaccines. She says that the term used in medical research in describing their effect is "sensitisation", which means that susceptibility to the infection (and any other infection) is actually increased, rather than decreased. "In fact we have had reports from parents that their babies contracted it directly from the vaccine", she says.

Ms Hancock reports that CDC MMWR reports show that whooping cough was on the decline in the U.S. only until the DPT vaccine was made compulsory for school entry in 1978. Ever since then it has been rising, and researchers determined that even by 1992 the true number of cases had already reached pre-vaccine levels (JAMA 1992).
http://www.whale.to/v/hancock2.html

From an article To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate, by Inger Myhre I found the following information concerning the whooping cough vaccine.

The whooping cough (pertusis) vaccine (the "P" in DTP) has the highest incidence of side effects. Half of the children receiving this vaccine are fretful and/or have fevers. Seizures are reported in one in 1,750 vaccine recipients. Persistent screaming for three or more hours is noted in one in 100 shots and an unusual, high-pitched cry is a one in 1,000 complication. Severe neurological problems (brain damage or death) are reported in one in 140,000 to one in 310,000 children. Whooping cough is a serious disease that can be dangerous in very young children (under 6 months of age), but it can be treated with erythromycin and antibiotics. There is a new DTP vaccine which is not yet available in the U.S., which may reduce the incidence of side effects. But for now one responsible option is to have the DT vaccine, without the "P."
http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainability/community/vaccinate.html

posted 02-16-2002 08:40 PM            

Infectious Diseases in the News - 18 January 2002

Recent News Stories: Key Points

Outbreak of flu-like illness in a Cornwall
comprehensive school

There has been some media interest this week in an outbreak of flu-like illness in a comprehensive school in Cornwall. Approximately 512 pupils, aged 13-16 years old, out of a school of 1100 have been affected and are suffering with respiratory symptoms.
Initial tests carried out by the PHLS for influenza were negative, however further testing for influenza is ongoing. A second outbreak of this size has also occurred in a school in Scotland and results on specimens taken this week are awaited.
The latest weekly flu report from the PHLS is still showing a low level of activity countrywide compared to levels observed in previous years. Other respiratory infections also remain at a low level apart from acute bronchitis, which has increased over the past week, but still remains within the levels expected for the time of year. http://www.phls.co.uk/news/bulletins/2002/020118id.htm

posted 02-23-2002 09:59 PM            

2. Asthma Management
Asthma rates have doubled in the last 20 years, and the prevalence of asthma among children and adolescents is increasing at an alarming and puzzling rate. There are major disparities in the incidence and prevalence of asthma, with the burden falling disproportionately on children in low income and minority communities. Asthma in many inner-city Boston communities is estimated to afflict 11 -19 children per 1,000, compared to an overall state rate of 4 children per 1,000.
http://web1.tch.harvard.edu/about/services.html

And on October 20, 1997 the AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION reported the following bits of information:

According to the American Lung Association, asthma is on the rise among all people in the United States and the leading serious chronic illness among children. Between 1982 and 1994, the overall asthma rate jumped by 61 percent. Today, there are an estimated 14.6 million people who suffer from asthma, and almost five million of them are children under the age of 18.

What many people may not know is that the rate of asthma among Hispanic children is two-and-a-half times higher than the asthma rate among whites and more than one-and-a-half times that among African-American children.

According to another study of 1,007 school children, only 39.4 percent of children with asthma symptoms knew that they might have the disease. These same children had significantly worse asthma and also were absent more often. Accounting for 10 million lost school days annually, asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic conditions, and is also the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15 years-old. There is no easy explanation for these alarming statistics, but one factor may be geography. Ninety-one percent of Hispanics live in cities or other urban settings, where air pollution is most likely to be at its worst. This is compared to 70 percent of whites. Many Hispanics also live in areas where national standards for ozone, particulates, carbon monoxide and other harmful pollutants are rarely met. Overcrowded living conditions, roach-infested housing and indoor air pollution may also play a role. http://www.lungusa.org/press/association/asnhisp3.html

And from the University of California I found this mention.

Asthma Rate Continues to Increase: Is Modern Living to Blame?Asthma’s increase in recent years is mystifying researchers. Theories of why asthma rates continue to rise despite improvement in outdoor air quality have led to some possible explanations but medical experts have little scientific data to prove them.Studies have indicated that asthma is both a genetic and environmental disease. Multiple genes are thought to determine a person’s predisposition to asthma and exposure to materials in the surrounding environment determines whether these genes express themselves or not. http://www.ucsf.edu/daybreak/1997/12/1222_ast.htm

posted 02-23-2002 10:30 PM            

African Americans are 1.7 times more likely to have diabetes than the general population, with 25 percent of African Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 diagnosed with the disease.
Hispanic Americans are almost twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes, which affects 10.6 percent of that population group.
Native Americans are at a significantly increased risk for developing diabetes, and 12.2 percent of the population suffers from the disease. In some tribes, as many as 50 percent of members have diabetes. http://www.apma.org/topics/Diabetes.htm

posted 02-23-2002 10:47 PM            

Children. Until recently, diabetes in children was almost always type 1 (an autoimmune disease). Of major concern, however, are estimates that between 8% and 45% of new diabetes cases in children are type 2. And this increase is occurring not only in the US but also in other nations, such as Japan. Diabetes is usually recognized in children who are in middle to late puberty. It most often occurs in girls and children who are overweight. (Another childhood form of diabetes is also on the increase called idiopathic or nonimmune-mediated type 1 diabetes. It mostly occurs in African American children.) http://health.medscape.com/cx/viewarticle/209029_3

How serious is diabetes among American Indians?
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most serious health challenges facing American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States today. The disease is very common in many tribes, and morbidity and mortality from diabetes can be severe.
Most American Indians and Alaska Natives with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which usually develops in adults but can develop in children or adolescents. Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body's resistance to the action of insulin and by impaired insulin secretion. It can be managed with health