Taliban Protects Polio in Pakistan

Polio becomes ‘public health emergency’ in Pakistan as number of cases soars

Pakistan has struggled for years to shed its title as one of the last remaining countries with an active polio virus, mostly because of troubles it faces in vaccinating children.

In far-flung areas of the country, some parents and religious leaders are skeptical of the vaccine, requiring considerable face-to-face outreach by vaccination teams.

But the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militants have waged a brutal campaign against those teams, killing more than 50 health workers and security officials since 2012. The attacks began after it was discovered that the CIA had used a vaccination campaign to gain information about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts.

Which is why the CIA should always impersonate journalists when they go undercover.

In May, after new polio cases in Iraq and Syria were linked to travelers from Pakistan, the WHO declared Pakistan’s polio crisis an “extraordinary event” mandating an immediate international response. Ebola is the only other disease that is currently designated by the WHO as a global public health emergency.

That puts Jenny McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., most notable anti-vax fanatics in the US, in the same tent with Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, the "new" enterovirus, D68 is making the round, claiming it's first fatality, and paralyzing several more, while question persist as to where it erupted from.  Tom McQuire at Just One Minute: Moving To Phase II Of The Enterovirus "Coverage"

First, the "coverage":

After Death of New Jersey Boy From Enterovirus 68, Worry Grows Among Parents

Well, yes, a child is dead, as are others, and many have partial paralysis. So where is this virus coming from and what can we do?

Unfortunately, the "what can we do" list is pretty short - basically we are advised to cross our fingers and wash our hands (at the same time?!?)

And as an example of washing one's hands, we get a comical Times followup chat with an infectious disease specialist:

Q. Until recently a lot of people had never heard of enterovirus 68. Is this outbreak — or the scope of it — unusual?
A. I think the most surprising aspect of it is how severe it is, particularly the symptoms in kids. Because that hasn’t really been seen before. As far as the extent of it, in the past 10 years, there have been reports by our group as well as several around the world that the virus has been increasing in incidence. There have been clusters in Southeast Asia, in Europe, in Africa and in North America. It’s been increasing in the past decade.

I honestly believe the reprter has made no effort to Google around on this topic. Thos who do quickly discover an October 2013 article in Virology Today noting that enteroviruses, including D-68, are lurking in Central Amercian children.

Hmm. Didn't we have an influx of Central American children to the US this summer? Weren't there concerns about diseases spreading in the holding camps? Weren't the children dispersed all across this great nation? Well, yes, although the Feds aren't forthcoming about where.

But he ends up discounting (but not dismissing) the role of the immigrants in the spread of D68:

Well. My initial guess was that since Texas was not showing up as one the early states with an outbreak, the disease was less likely to be associated with immigrants. As to that, who knows, and why ask me? But my other guess, that political correctness would require the media to steer away from exploring this possible link, has been utterly vindicated.

On the other hand, maybe we're just not seeing as many reports from Texas because they're not as vigilant whiny. And there's a segregation among immigrants as to where they would go, with more Mexicans preferring to seek work in Texas and California, while the Central Americans tend to be moving farther north.