Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Childhood cancer outbreak possibly caused by mosquitoes
May 18, 2011 | Susanne Rust
Something happened to the children of Fallon, Nev., between 1997 and 2003.
Fourteen children were diagnosed with childhood leukemia, a rate for that population size that should only occur, by chance, once every 22,000 years, according to epidemiologists. The Fallon rate was 12 times higher than typically expected.
A new study by California researchers examines the geographic and seasonal occurrences of the diagnoses, and concludes that mosquitoes may have been behind the outbreak.
?The rural location of most cases suggests mosquitoes as a possible vector,? Joe Wiemels, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, told New Scientist Magazine.
...
"The temporality and seasonality of the epidemic curve is consistent with a point source exposure or an infectious agent acting out a classic 'outbreak' pattern," Wiemels said. And taken together with everything the epidemiological community and the CDC know about childhood leukemia, as well as the high population turnover in the town, it "suggests a possible infectious cause," he said.
...
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/childhood-cancer-outbreak-possibly-caused-mosquitoes-10326
May 18, 2011 | Susanne Rust
Something happened to the children of Fallon, Nev., between 1997 and 2003.
Fourteen children were diagnosed with childhood leukemia, a rate for that population size that should only occur, by chance, once every 22,000 years, according to epidemiologists. The Fallon rate was 12 times higher than typically expected.
A new study by California researchers examines the geographic and seasonal occurrences of the diagnoses, and concludes that mosquitoes may have been behind the outbreak.
?The rural location of most cases suggests mosquitoes as a possible vector,? Joe Wiemels, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, told New Scientist Magazine.
...
"The temporality and seasonality of the epidemic curve is consistent with a point source exposure or an infectious agent acting out a classic 'outbreak' pattern," Wiemels said. And taken together with everything the epidemiological community and the CDC know about childhood leukemia, as well as the high population turnover in the town, it "suggests a possible infectious cause," he said.
...
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/childhood-cancer-outbreak-possibly-caused-mosquitoes-10326