Thursday, April 13, 2006

Oregon Trail

This is not a post about playing childhood computer games at Anne's birthday party.

Its about all the freaky diseases that seem to still exist. I started discussing this with my sister because of the Mumps outbreak in the Midwest, starting in Iowa and seeming to mostly be hitting college kids. Hitting college kids makes sense since they all live together and none of them have ever had the Mumps since they've been vaccinating all the kiddos for the last 30 years. And if a disease starts with college kids, starting in Iowa makes sense considering how many colleges they have. If I had to think of a non-agricultural image of Iowa, it would be cute little liberal arts colleges.

My sister knows someone who got Whooping Cough, and her roommate has had Scarlet Fever TWICE. Have you had, or do you know someone who has had, any of the following diseases? I'm just morbidly curious about these old school diseases that really, truly should not be an issue anymore.
  • Polio
  • diphtheria
  • Cholera
  • Rubella (German Measles)
  • measles
Note: the spellchecker didn't even *know* the word mumps. That's how much of a non-issue it generally is.

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