Monkey Poxs
MommyToAshley wrote: First the cases of Monkey Poxs in WI, Now they think kids in a daycare in Indiana have it.... how scary. Anyone else paranoid about all these illnesses... SARS, Monkey Poxs, West Niles, etc. Am I just being paranoid? I am almost afraid to take Ashley out. I know I can't be like that, but I just want to put her in a big bubble to protect her.
amynicole21 replied: I am a huge germ-a-phobe. I dream of finding a tiny little HazMat suit for Sophia to wear out of the house. 
Mommieto2Girls replied: Yep I agree, it's getting radicoulous(sp?). Thank god down here in Florida I haven't heard of anything near here. I can't imagine if something were to happen.
booey2 replied: Well, as we live in the epi centre of the SARS outbreak and we even had to go to one of the hospitals that was effected (not knowing that at the time). There is a lot more paranoia here. But if you stay away from the medical areas then you are okay. We just take it one day at a time.
Hillbilly Housewife replied: I went to the hospital yesterday for my ultrasound, and going in there are these tables with people sitting at them, with papers for you to sign. There are guards everywhere. It's RIDICULOUS.
Sorry if this sounds offensive or anything....but this is just nature's way of doing population control.
Kirstenmumof3 replied:  The whole SARS issue here is just awful! There have been no reported cases as of yet in Thunder Bay, but we still have to answer the questions and fill out forms everytime we visit the hospital! No scare here with Monkey Pox yet!
MommyToAshley replied: I just heard on the news that the MonkeyPoxs is in Indiana, Illinois, West Virgina, and New Jersey! AAACKKK!  Ohio is in the middle of all of them!
supermom replied: Nods - if you go to www.cnn.com and look at the stories. We've also had about 70 cases of SARS if I remember correctly, you just don't hear about them because of the Canada cases being more numerous and therefore more newsworthy
Hillbilly Housewife replied: What the heck is the Monkey Pox?
Nevermind....I just googled it.
Hillbilly Housewife replied: At least 18 of the cases have been reported in Wisconsin, with at least one additional case in Illinois and 10 in Indiana. More cases, however, were being investigated, officials said.
State and federal authorities are tracing about 200 animals that were distributed in 15 states by an exotic-pet dealer in Illinois. The dealer sold prairie dogs, which are believed to be the source of the outbreak.
"There's the potential of transmission from animal to human, so certainly we are concerned," said Jeff Squibb of the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Officials also are worried the animals could spread the disease to wild rabbits and other indigenous creatures, allowing the virus to become entrenched in the United States.
"That's probably the biggest concern we have other than the immediate concern of trying to get the message out as quickly as possible to try to identify people who might have been exposed," said Stephen Ostroff, deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.
The monkey-pox outbreak comes just as concerns were subsiding over severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a deadly new lung infection believed to have jumped to humans last November from an exotic animal known as a civet, which is eaten as a delicacy in China.
"This situation is not just only people who come into contact with people. It's people who come into contact with animals. It's animals that come in contact with other animals," Squibb said. "It's more complex because of the combination and permutations of potential transmissions."
One of the Wisconsin cases involved a rabbit owner who was infected by his pet, which apparently became infected during a visit to the same veterinarian who treated a sick prairie dog, Davis said.
While no cases of the disease apparently have spread directly from person to person in the United States, that has been known to occur with monkey pox in Africa.
Monkey pox is usually only found in central and western Africa. It is caused by a virus in the same family as the smallpox virus. It triggers similar symptoms — fever, cough and a rash of small red blistering welts that eventually break open and scab over, sometimes leaving victims with scars.
Monkey pox is believed to be much less deadly than smallpox, with a mortality rate of 1 percent to 10 percent, compared with about 30 percent for smallpox, which has been eradicated except for laboratory stocks. There is no treatment for monkey pox.
The outbreak was apparently started by a shipment of 38 prairie dogs that an exotic-pet dealer, Phil's Pocket Pets of Villa Park, Ill., sold to another dealer, EK Exotics in Milwaukee. Phil's Pocket Pets had purchased the animals from a dealer in Texas. Phil's Pocket Pets also purchased three Gambian giant rats, which are indigenous to Africa, from a dealer in Iowa.
It is unclear whether the Gambian giant rats infected the prairie dogs or whether the prairie dogs acquired the virus some other way.
Illinois and Wisconsin have temporarily banned the sale of prairie dogs and have quarantined the two animal dealers, as well as the Kautzers' home, a farm that houses an assortment of other pets.
Officials are tracking 115 customers who bought animals from Phil's Pocket Pets since April 15, when the first shipments arrived from Texas. All sick animals and people are being kept isolated to prevent further spread.
EK Exotics sold prairie dogs to two pet stores in Milwaukee and at a "pet swap." That's where the Kautzers acquired two prairie dogs on Mother's Day, Tammy Kautzer said.
Two days after getting the animals, one started to get sick. One eye started to swell shut and crust over, and a gland swelled up. A veterinarian gave the animal antibiotics, but it died several days later.
A few days after that, Kautzer's daughter, who had gotten a small bite on her hand from the animal, developed a high fever. At first, doctors sent her home with antibiotics. When she worsened, she was admitted to the Marshfield Clinic.
"The bite on her finger just kept getting bigger and bigger. All she did was sleep or cry. She couldn't eat anything. Her glands swelled up so much on her neck you could see them popping out," Kautzer said in a telephone interview.
Doctors tried various medications, but nothing worked.
Kautzer, 28, stayed with her daughter at the hospital and started to develop similar symptoms. Her glands swelled, making it hard to swallow. Red welts broke out all over her body.
"I had the cold sweats for about three nights. I would wake up and I'd be totally drenched. My bedding was drenched. My clothes were drenched," she said.
Finally, after about three days, Schyan started to improve, and so did Kautzer. Her husband developed similar symptoms, but never got as ill as their daughter or Kautzer.
(taken from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/1349...0835_pox09.html )
MommyToAshley replied: Now, on the news, they are saying they think it is being spread from person to person. A nurse in the hospital got it from a patient.
CantWait replied: Oh yes and lets add one more to that list,
MAD COW grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I try not to think about all of it, I have a mind set that if something is meant to be then it's going to happen. Although it's of no comfort to someone who is suffering from these outbreaks in some way, and it wouldn't to me either. I just can't think about all the "what if's" all the time.
MomofTay&Sam replied:  I just wanted to share some of my knowledge about this situation which is out of control. JMO I co-own/run a animal forum, we have more exotic members than the regular dog and cat people. We have alot of PD owners, with huge herds which are not vaccum pups but breed right there at home. PD's are being destroyed faster than you could even imagine and it makes me sick! PD's are being destroyed at ranches/farms that have never left the property from birth and none have been imported in. I am posting a link for you guys to read, if you snoop around the PD forum you will find alot of addtional info. I have exotics myself but I guess I shouldnt be annoucing it right now. So take a look and let me know what you think.
PD/Monkey Pox info
MomofTay&Sam replied: just  this so you guys can read it.
dolfinrse replied: I just heard on the 11 o'clock news that the case of Monkey Pox here in NJ is not really Monkey Pox. Just a simple case of the chicken pox thank goodness.
~CrazieMama~ replied: Very glad that being down here in Florida we don't really have that much to worry about. So far we are germ free when it comes to things like those diseases. I would be afraid to take my baby out in the world if there were anything like that near my house.
MomofTay&Sam replied: HappyMom their is a huge PD community in FLA. It is not what you think, did you read the link I provided? This is not a germ that will infect our babies or children. To be knowing is first and foremost, please read. I am sorry to sound harsh but this is out of control. You guys have nothing to worry about unless you have bought a PD from the orginial breeder that was with the rat. See how things get blown up???
~CrazieMama~ replied: I would never buy a PD in the first place. I do not let me kids around animals I do not know, especially anything that is not a dog or cat. I know you are just being informative. I appreciate it. I live in a very small town and as far as I know, there are no PD's here. Thanks for the onfo though.
MomToMany replied:  Just MHO. All this stuff scares the h*ll out of me, too. But I think it's also over-publicized, too. Yes, there's a point of telling a story, but another to create a nation-wide panic. I can't stand watching the news anymore; it's so negative, with little positive stories out there. I don't want my kids watching it either; it might make them too worried about things that are for adults to worry about.
Life's too short to worry about everything out there. I'm not saying I would put my kids in harm's way, but it doesn't do any good to get paranoid about it when there's only a remote possibility of it getting in contact with my family. If there's ever a reported case in this part of the state, then I'd start worrying. But until then, there's nothing for me to worry about. it would be great to keep our kids in sterile bubbles, but that's not possible. We have our lives to live, and I'm not letting the big TV networks scare me so bad that I'm going to stop and be scared to even go outside. There's much more important things to do.
ashade75 replied: I know its hard and we worry about diseases, but more people die of the flu each year. About 36,000 people die from the flu each year.
I would just try to stay out of hospital area, and dont buy a prairie dog or rat as apet! haha
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