A 2-year-old Indiana boy who contracted a rare and life-threatening infection from his soldier father’s smallpox vaccination is recovering, a University of Chicago hospital spokesman said. The boy is not suffering from smallpox, but from a related virus which is used to convey immunity to the much deadlier disease. Health officials say there is no infection risk for the general population because the virus can be spread only through close physical contact. The child suffered from eczema, which is a known risk factor for such an infection, doctors said.
A boat carrying four people, including two boys ages 6 and 7, careened off a 150-foot dam on the Colorado River and became wedged near the bottom, authorities said. The boaters were rescued Friday and two of them, including one child, were airlifted to a nearby hospital, a Coast Guard spokesman said. “Our best guess is that they either lost steering or their engine died,” he said. “If your engine dies, there’s no way to stop yourself from going over the dam.”
A high school club that promotes tolerance of gays must be allowed to meet while a lawsuit is pending, a federal judge ruled. The U.S. District judge ruled Friday that Okeechobee High School must grant the same privileges to the Gay Straight Alliance that it grants other clubs. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school board in November on behalf of the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance after school officials said the group was a “sex-based” organization that would violate its abstinence-only education policy.
From Herald news services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
