Lubbock, Texas was a sleepy panhandle town with a powerful radio station when Buddy Holly exploded on the music scene. Today, its probably best known for the sprawling Texas Tech campus where Bobby Knight went to coach college basketball before he retired earlier this year. Bobby Knight was also known for exploding occasionally.
The latest explosion in Lubbock is the the number of shigellosis cases. KCBD-TV 11, the local NBC affiliate, reports on the numbers for the period between Sept. 6 and Oct. 3:
Forty-four cases have been reported during these dates. This is a five-fold increase over the expected 8 cases in a 30-day period. The cases range in age from 1 year to 75 years with 28 (63 percent) of the cases in children 1 to 15 years of age. Twenty of the 44 cases are lab confirmed. There are 24 probable cases among the household or classroom contacts of lab-confirmed cases. No common food source has been linked to these cases.
By contrast, between January and August of 2007, the Texas city reported only seven Shigella cases. For the best background on Shigella to be found on the net, go here.