Smallpox anyone ? middle school outbreak of mysterious rash..

[Valhalla1]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36077-2001Nov29.html




<< 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. >>

 

[Rallispec]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! I WENT TO THIS MIDDLE SCHOOL
seriously.. marsteller middle, prince william country, right of rt.234 next to the hosptial. I gotta find out if this is true or not.. if there is smallpox running around my hometown i'm gonna be pissed.

 

[Valhalla1]

i kinda doubt its smallpox.. but who knows


on a side note, thats a pretty interesting coincidence that 3 minutes after I posted, someone who went to that middle school out of the thousands of middle schools in the US replies..

 

[Rallispec]

yeah i doubt it small pox too.. i still cant believe that is my middle school though.. It was the most ghetto school when i went there... didnt even have air conditioning.. after i left they remodelled the place though, supposed to pretty nice now. I'll have to call my mom tomorrow to see if she has heard anything about this.

 

[Jfur]

what does that have to do with smallpox -- please don't freak people out without reason

 

[trmiv]

Where exactly does it mention smallpox? No reason to even have that in the title of this thread.

 

[Valhalla1]

hey I didnt say it was smallpox.

just an attention-getting rhetorical question. lighten up

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It says in the article 'more serious illnesses were quickly ruled out' for what that's worth (not much IMO). And it sounds like they are dragging their asses in getting to the bottom of this. Ten days and they still don't know the cause and haven't called in the CDC. With what's going on in the world that's down-right inexcusible.

 

[TallBill]

eh.. they didnt have air conditioning??? my frickin high school didnt have that! or heat! so dont complain!

 

[UofI]

Scary :Q

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

Is this in DC?

Edit, I found it, it's right here.

You have to be joking! 1/3 of school in the DC area comes down with a rash and the FBI isn't there, this is serious! Considering all the sh1t going on in DC.

 

[Rallispec]

<< Is this in DC? >>


in manassas.. about 30 minutes south of DC

 

[Looney]

And people blame the press for sensationalizing things.

 

[The Stigenator]

werent we innoculated against small pox years ago (atleast I was, I was for small pox, measles, mumps, and chicken pox as well as polio). So Far I got only German Measles and measles (The measles shot has to be boosted every few years - I dindt do it in 11th grade and I got during my final exams).

 

[Valhalla1]

they stopped routine smallpox vaccines years and years ago.. only in the last few weeks has the govt. payed for production of enough smallpox vaccine to innoculate the entire population

 

[Logix]

The U.S. stopped administering the smallpox vaccine in 1972. Apparently, the vaccine was only effective for 10 years or so before you'd have to get it again.

 

[The Stigenator]

I was born in India and I got it when I was born.. though it might be a good idea to get a booster shot.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Gotta tell all you guys, this happens all the time. These mysterious rashes are almost never diagnosable. It's just a fact of life. As far as the FBI not getting into this, to a responsible medical professional, it would be like calling the FBI whenever someone sneezes. Fifth's disease ranks way up there, but you can only guess what these things are. Generally, you cannot culture these organisms (and I am assuming it's biological in origin), so you make your best guess and it goes away in a few weeks.

Giving smallpox vaccines was stopped, because it is extinct. Now I know it was kept alive in the lab, but in the population it's gone. The vaccine has a small chance of causing serious problems, and can even kill. You always weigh risk verses benefit in therapy, and since there was no benefit the innoculations stopped.

 

[Valhalla1]

<< Giving smallpox vaccines was stopped, because it is extinct. Now I know it was kept alive in the lab, but in the population it's gone. The vaccine has a small chance of causing serious problems, and can even kill. You always weigh risk verses benefit in therapy, and since there was no benefit the innoculations stopped. >>




I'm not convinced that the only smallpox that exists is in protected labs.. its is a known fact that the soviets during the cold war had ICBM's with biological warheads containing anthrax and smallpox, which were designed to kill any survivors in an all out nuclear war of mutual destruction. these former soviet scientists can be easily paid to hand over some smallpox samples to say, Iraq, or the al-quesa-dia jackasses

 

[JACKHAMMER]

I do believe that the only smallpox is in labs. There hasn't been an outbreak forever. As far as the Russians having it, they do. They have it in Moscow somewhere and we have it in Georgia. Those are the only existing strains. And as far a having ICBMs with smallpox, that would be worthless. In the 70's near everyone was vaccinated, it would do them no good.

 

[Valhalla1]

its true man