West Nile Virus Surges With 27 Cases (California)

Only five had been reported by this time last year. Kern County is hit the hardest, with 22. Eighteen incidents were recorded just last week.

West Nile virus, spread by mosquitoes, has taken an early hold on parts of California this summer, sickening 27 people statewide compared with only five last year at this time.

Unusually high temperatures throughout the state in March triggered an earlier start to the West Nile virus season than in other years.

Human illnesses have been documented in six counties, led by Kern County with 22, and one each in San Joaquin, Merced, Stanislaus, Glenn and Mendocino counties, state health officials reported Friday. Eighteen of the cases were documented in the last week.

No human illness has been reported south of Kern County this year. But that seems only a matter of time because the virus already has infected animals throughout most of the state.

Dead birds or other animals in 36 of California's 58 counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, have tested positive for West Nile virus, according to the state website tracking the disease, westnile.ca.gov.

The California Department of Public Health warned earlier this month that the rising numbers "could indicate that the mosquito and vector control agencies may have another busy year battling West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes."

Dr. Mark Horton, director of the state's public health department, recently recommended that people take steps to avoid mosquito bites.

"Even though the likelihood of serious illness from West Nile virus is low for most people, all Californians should take every precaution to reduce their risk of exposure," he said.

My daughter had WNV a couple years ago, when she was six. I was the weirdest illness. They thought that she might have a brain tumor or something because she has some really strange eye movements. She would just zone out for a couple seconds, and then snap back. Her whole personality changed for a couple weeks.

She was fine by the time we got the official diagnosis. (it took about 6 weeks) They are still doing some studies on her.

Readers might be interested to know a safe and apparently effective treatment for WNV encephalitis was published three years ago.

My company developed (and owns a patent which is still pending) on the treatment, and has been using it in an ongoing free clinical trial for the past 5 summers, since 2003.

Our initial results on 8 patients seen in Sept, 2003 were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in July, 2004 (1). Publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal is all that’s required for a treatment to officially exist, even if the public health authorities omit to mention it.

21 patients with WNV have responded so far, out of 25 (84%). We’ve also treated 4 horses (3 responded) and 12 birds (6 responded; birds present sicker than humans and horses). Our WNV trial is free from our end. The blood pressure meds we use are inexpensive (around $1/day) and are available by prescription from any drugstore in the country.

Anybody who wants to download our trial documents can do so at any time of day or night from our homepage at www.genomed.com.

Beginning treatment early—within the first 48 hrs of encephalitis symptoms—seems to be the only way to avoid long-term sequelae such as paralysis, chronic fatigue, cognitive problems, etc. WNV is notorious for still affecting half of WNV victims 18 months later.

If a family knows about our treatment ahead of time, they’ll be in a much better position to get it prescribed for their relative who comes down with the disease.

Reference
1. Moskowitz DW, Johnson FE. The central role of angiotensin I-converting enzyme in vertebrate pathophysiology. Curr Top Med Chem. 2004;4(13):1433-54. PMID: 15379656 (For PDF file, click on paper #6 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications)

Sincerely,

Dave Moskowitz MD
Chairman, CEO & Chief Medical Officer
GenoMed, Inc.
“Our business is public health(TM)”

website: www.genomed.com
Ticker symbol: GMED.PK (on the OTC Pink Sheets)

email: dwmoskowitz@genomed.com

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