Another Polio? Alarming West Nile Risks Emerge

Science News ^ | 9-28-2002 | John Pickrell/JanetRaloff

[blam]

Another Polio? Alarming West Nile fever risks emerge

John Pickrell and Janet Raloff

Having struck nearly 2,100 people and killed 98 in the United States so far this year, West Nile virus infection amounts to an epidemic. Now, medical workers have found poliolike symptoms in a few victims, and last week, federal officials said that blood transfusions appear to have infected some people.

The first U.S. cases of West Nile fever were reported in 1999 in New York. Since then, it's hit 35 other states. The disease is generally transmitted by mosquitoes.

Though flulike symptoms are most common, some severe cases progress to encephalitis, a potentially fatal swelling of the brain, occurs. Two reports to be published in the Oct. 17 New England Journal of Medicine link the virus to rare instances of long-term paralysis, a symptom that had shown up in birds, horses, and monkeys.

Discovery of West Nile patients with polio symptoms is a surprise, says Jonathan D. Glass of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, a coauthor of one of the reports. Poliolike paralysis is something "you've read about" but never see in the United States anymore, he says.

Poliomyelitis paralysis—caused by spinal cord damage—is historically associated with the poliovirus, though other viruses can also cause it, says Glass. Before polio vaccinations began in 1955, the disease was common in the United States.

Just as Glass' team realized this past summer that West Nile infection could yield paralysis, researchers and physicians at the Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, Miss., discovered the same symptom in patients there. Between them, the groups have diagnosed seven people with paralysis from West Nile fever. Some previous cases involved muscle weakness, says Dobrivoje S. Stokic from the Jackson team.

Polio symptoms probably aren't caused by any particular West Nile strain, says Glass. "The more cases [of West Nile fever] you get, the more likely you are to see its rare manifestations," he says.

Most of the paralysis cases were revealed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Sept. 19. CDC epidemiologist James J. Sejvar noted then that several patients with West Nile paralysis had been misdiagnosed with another paralytic malady, Guillain-Barré syndrome. However, Sejvar noted, unlike that syndrome, West Nile paralysis affects a patient's body asymmetrically and doesn't impair the sense of touch. The distinction is important, Sejvar notes, because side effects from unnecessary treatment for Guillain-Barré syndrome could be harmful.

Lyle R. Petersen of the CDC in Fort Collins, Colo., notes that live West Nile virus has been found in a sample of a banked blood product. Jesse L. Goodman of the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Md., adds that "at least a few of the reported [West Nile fever] cases may be related to transmission by blood and, certainly, in . . . one case, to transmission through organ donation."

[lucyblue]

bump

[Diogenesis]

THIS JUST IN:

Castro; "We are proud of what we have done. Revenge is ours."

Fawning Rather: "With your viruses' polio, many more crippled Americans
will have towatch CBS and our ratings will improve. We are on frequency."

[blam]

"at least a few of the reported [West Nile fever] cases may be related to transmission by blood and, certainly, in . . . one case, to transmission through organ donation."

A case of transmission through mother's milk (nursing) to an infant has now been recorded. There are six cases of this 'polio' paralysis recorded in Mississippi alone.

[alloysteel]

And people still cannot bring themselves to imagine that this West Nile virus could be bioterrorism. Question - in the hundreds of years that the West has been entering and leaving the area of Egypt and other parts of the Middle East where this disease is endemic, why has the disease never spread out of the area before? It has spread to the US because it was introduced as a conscious program with malevolent intent, by people who had the means, the motive, the opportunity.

[eno_]

Moreover, just because it was labeled "West Nile Virus" doesn't mean it is the same as any virus found in nature. It was named way before these symptoms emerged. There is no very strong reason to believe it was introduced accidentally, and, as you point out, the introduction and subsequent spread of tropical diseases into the U.S. is a rare event.

[blam]

I don't think this is getting the press it should. Most doctors do not even know about this paralysis angle. I sent a copy of this report (from The Boston Globe) to my local newspaper, Mobile Register. Not a peep!

[stndngathwrthistry]

And people still cannot bring themselves to imagine that this West Nile virus could be bioterrorism.

Actually, I think most people can imagine that it could be. They just aren't assuming, as you are, that it must be.

[ffrancone]

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THE REPUBLICANS TOOK BACK THE SENATE.

HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN! GO TO:

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A resource for conservatives who want a Republican majority in the Senate

[terilyn]

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[blam]

Doctors Link Polio To West Nile Virus

[blam]

"It has spread to the US because it was introduced as a conscious program with malevolent intent, by people who had the means, the motive, the opportunity."

Could/would they tell us that it was an attack even if they knew? Panic! You can't defend against panic.

[Letitring]

OMG, I did not know this. Thanks.

[backhoe]

-All Terror, All the Time-- FR's links to NBC Warfare, Terror, and More...--

[Ditter]

I can certainly believe that WNV has been introduced by an enemy & is bioterrorism but I can NOT believe that Castro introduced it, as some have suggested.

[blam]

"I can NOT believe that Castro introduced it, as some have suggested."

Yup. I agree. I thought that was a little silly (but didn't say so) because our birds go there too.

[fire_eye]

Actually, I think most people can imagine that it could be. They just aren't assuming, as you are, that it must be.

I don't understand why any speculation is necessary... Tracking epidemics is a known science and is the provenance of the NCDC. If they aren't already doing DNA analysis of the virus and trying to determine its origin, somebody up there needs to be fired. If it originated in a lab, that should be easily distinguishable from virus found in the wild (presumably in Egypt or whatever other third-world cesspool in which it originated, right?).

But I suppose everyone would rather blither on moronically... What's the problem, is everyone here a Humanities major, or something?

[ImphClinton]

I will tell you the problem.

Our government for very good reasons would never announce this was a terroist attack. If they were to do so it would cause mass panic far worse than yelling fire in a theater.

They would let it leak little by little. This could very well be step 2 in that process. I would imagine step 3 would be announcing it is a rare strain. It might take years before the public was let known the truth.

Take the bar of enriched uranium first it was 37 pounds then 6 ounces then there was. I see nothing. Followed by the comment recently that Sadam would want three to five nuclear weapons. What is the real truth?

I hardly fall for tin cap type stuff but I also don't wear blinders. The fact is JFK was shot at by more than one man. The congress waited thirty years to tell us that.

[blam]

bump.

[Betty Jo]

I'm operating under the assumption that everything bad that happens in the world right now can be laid at the doorsteps of Islamic Terrorists!

West Nile
Anthrax
Flu
Wellstones plane crash

When a brand new killer illness hits us,I'll be way ahead of the crowd, because I know that the Islamic Terrorists want to destroy all of America!