Oct 13, 10:06 PM EDT
Four Children in Minnesota Contract Polio

By MARTIGA LOHN
Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Four children in an Amish community in Minnesota have contracted the
polio virus - the first known infections in the U.S. in five years, state health officials said
Thursday.

Dr. Harry Hull, the state epidemiologist, said the cases do not pose a threat to the general
public because most people have been vaccinated against polio and are unlikely to have contact
with Amish people. But he said he expects to find more infections within the Amish community
because some of its members refuse immunizations on religious grounds.

None of the children have shown any symptoms of the paralyzing disease. About one in 200 people
who contract the polio virus suffer paralysis because of it; others typically rid themselves
the virus after weeks or months.

None of the four children had been vaccinated. Three are siblings; the fourth is a baby from
another family.

The infection came to light when the baby was hospitalized for various health problems and
underwent tests. Authorities then began testing other members of the community for the virus.

Officials would not identify the Amish community but said it consisted of 100 to 200 people.

Hull said the infections were traced to an oral vaccine that was administered in another
country, probably within the past three years.

The use of oral polio vaccine containing the live virus was stopped in the United States in
2000. The live-virus vaccine caused an average of eight cases of polio a year in the United
States. The U.S. and Canada now use an injected vaccine made from the killed virus.

State and federal officials are investigating how an infection from a vaccine given in another
country reached Minnesota. Stool or saliva from an infected person can transmit the virus.

Health officials said they are working with the Amish community to determine who may have been
exposed to the virus, and to encourage immunizations.

"We have been going house to house, talking with them about the risk, offering the vaccine and
attempting to collect specimens to see if the virus has been spreading," Hull said. "Some
families have said, `No, thank you, we do not want to interact with you at all.' Other families
have said, `Sure, we'll get vaccinated. We'll provide specimens.'"

Without the community's cooperation, Hull said, there is a chance of an outbreak similar to one
that occurred in 1979 in Amish communities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Ten
people were left paralyzed by the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.

The last naturally occurring case of polio in the United States was in 1979, and health
officials consider the disease eliminated in the Western Hemisphere. It persists in other parts
of the world, with the vast majority of cases concentrated in India, Nigeria and Pakistan,
according to the World Health Organization.

According to the CDC, more than 95 percent of U.S. children are vaccinated against polio by the
time they enter school.

Why do dissidents revere Duesberg as an authority and reject the
thousands of scientists that disagree with him?

Are you saying that Paulee has never cited Duesberg as an authority?

Duesberg's views on AIDS were discredited years ago. Nevertheless he
has maintained his appeal to lay people that prefer to believe against
all evidence that HIV does not exist and/or that it does not cause
AIDS.

I also noticed that you completely ignored the issue here and chose to
question my character and motives.

My point is simple. The arguments that Duesberg uses to "prove" that
HIV does not cause AIDS are bogus. He frequently makes categorical
statements that are false. The exact same arguments can be used against
other pathogens - something he never does.

If you are not a Duesberg fan then please refer me to a scientific
document that supports your beliefs. Or don't you have any beliefs that
you are prepared to defend?

Chris Noble

So you think Duesberg is an idiot and to be dismissed?

Well, I suppose that's a good start!

Well I was very sick when I started taking AZT and have been doing so for
90% of the time since 1996 to the present. Yet here I am alive and
relatively healthy how do you explain those simple facts?

Gary Stein