And it totally could be stopped from killing birds and sickening humans by DDT. But NO!! Can’t have THAT!!
Kern Co. is west (and east) of the Nile.
Since I live in a Michigan swamp, I assumed that I contracted it and became immune to it several years ago.
A friend of mine just returned from a year in the hospital with West Nile, most of it spent in isolation and on a ventilator. She’s now re-learning how to move her arms and use her hands. It’s true most folks just get a mild case, if they notice it at all, but those who do get it full-bore have a long, tough time ahead of them.
But how severely has WNV affected the horses? And Lord knows, there are horses aplenty in the San Joaquin Valley, wouldn’t they be a considerable reservoir of the disease?
Not sure if the disease also affects cattle too. But horses can definitely be affected, sometimes at a subclinical level, which may trigger other disorders.
It started in New York and New Jersey in 1999 and has now made its way to California and up and down the continental U.S.; by this time, three years from now it will be yesterday’s news.
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