Posted on 08/25/2004 3:44:52 PM PDT by QQQQQ
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Federal health officials are worried about a polio-like form of West Nile virus that has infected more than 30 people, including a California water skier who was bitten by an infected mosquito in Colorado last summer.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are monitoring the rare disease known as acute flaccid paralysis, or West Nile poliomyelitis, which struck down 32 residents last year in Colorado.
"Most of the people have a condition almost identical to that caused by the polio virus," CDC epidemiologist James Sejvar told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Those developing West Nile poliomyelitis tend to be younger and otherwise healthy."
By contrast, the rare polio-like variant tends to strike healthy adults in their 30s and 40s. Doctors aren't sure if patients will ever recover full use of their limbs, and some patients can no longer breathe without a ventilator.
No cases of West Nile poliomyelitis have been confirmed in California, but researchers are looking into several suspicious cases. On Tuesday, state health authorities reported that in the past week the number of West Nile infections rose more than 46 percent to 277 cases, mostly in southern California. The disease has claimed nine lives in the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
OK. You figured it out -- almost. I meant to put a "(", for (Colorado) to make it clear that she was bitten in CA.
I just didn't press the shift key down hard enough.
The point is that the people who get ill, die or have adverse effects from WNV tend to be the elderly and those with weakened immunse system.
But THIS version attacks and causes severe consequences in healthy younger people.
"By contrast, the rare polio-like variant tends to strike healthy adults in their 30s and 40s. Doctors aren't sure if patients will ever recover full use of their limbs, and some patients can no longer breathe without a ventilator."
Yes, but the Admin apparently didn't; now the right parenthesis is gone and a space appears between the 9 and in.
It's a small change -- could you please eliminate the "9", so as not to confuse people.
I intended to add:
(in Colorado)
to the title of the article, since the article title was misleading, mentioning CA woman, without mentioning that she didn't get it in CA, but Colorado.
Much ado about nothing ( the title that is, the disease is definitely serious)
Thanks.
I've read that also.
Alas, it has become my forte to worry about things that are not probable.
[By contrast, the rare polio-like variant tends to strike healthy adults in their 30s and 40s. Doctors aren't sure if patients will ever recover full use of their limbs, and some patients can no longer breathe without a ventilator.
No cases of West Nile poliomyelitis have been confirmed in California, but researchers are looking into several suspicious cases. On Tuesday, state health authorities reported that in the past week the number of West Nile infections rose more than 46 percent to 277 cases, mostly in southern California. The disease has claimed nine lives in the state.]
According to the California West Nile Virus Surveillance Information Center there have been 277 total cases of West Nile during the year 2004.
277 cases in a population of 35,484,453 = 1 in 128102.
Even if ALL 9 fatal cases were due to the "rare polio-like variant" - that would be 1 in 3,942,717
In the year 2000, there were 3331 traffic fatalities in California, out of a population of 33,871,648 = 1 in 10,168
So, the chances are 387 times greater that a California resident would be killed in their car. The sky is not falling.
You can take my bar-b-q spatula away when you pry it out of of my cold, dead, hands.
bmp
One word, Clinton.
Yes, West Nile Virus been around before, but it's never been in all the places it is now all of a sudden.
I'd say they used a lot of forsight to attack us on 9/11 too.
CDC gave Saddam West Nile samples
Riverside woman may be state's 10th West Nile death
Associated Press
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A 60-year-old woman with West Nile virus died in Riverside County, but further tests are necessary to determine if she was the state's 10th victim of the mosquito-borne illness, a health official said Thursday.
The unidentified woman had serious health problems unrelated to West Nile, and doctors are still trying to determine the exact cause of her death, said Barbara Cole, director of disease control at the county Department of Public Health.
"We're not counting it as a West Nile death. We're calling it a West Nile-related death," Cole said.
Thus far, the state has officially reported 277 human cases and seven deaths involving the illness.
But since those statistics were released on Tuesday, local officials said two more people died from the illness in San Bernardino County. The state figures will be updated on Friday.
Nationwide, West Nile has infected 843 people and killed 20 this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 80 percent of those infected with the virus will show no sign of the illness, while up to 20 percent experience mild symptoms that include fever, headache, body aches, nausea and vomiting, according to the CDC.
About one in 150 people infected with the virus develop severe symptoms that can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis, the CDC said.
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