Posted on 08/03/2002 3:32:32 PM PDT by self_evident
10,000 may be infected West Nile virus infects many, but few fall ill Advocate staff writer
mdunne@theadvocate.com
While there are 58 known cases of mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Louisiana, one state health official estimated 10,000 to 12,000 other people have been infected, felt no symptoms and are now immune to the disease.
West Nile virus has claimed four lives, two in East Baton Rouge Parish. Twelve of the 58 cases are from East Baton Rouge Parish. On Tuesday, Dr. Louis Cataldie, the parish's coroner, confirmed the disease caused the death of an 83-year-old woman, and now state officials have added a 75-year-old man to the list.
The outbreak in Louisiana will soon be the nation's largest since the disease came to the United States in 1999. The virus has also begun to spread across the state from the initial outbreak around Lake Pontchartrain with human cases confirmed in Calcasieu, Allen and Ouachita parishes.
Ouachita was the site of an outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis last year that killed four and hospitalized 62 people.
State Epidemiologist Raoult Ratard said the state is awaiting lab results on 34 more suspected cases. Some will prove to be other diseases, he said. "There is no sign it is going to go down. This is the beginning," Ratard.
The outbreak could last into October and November, Ratard and other health officials said.
David Hood, secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, said the "magnitude was greater than we expected."
Dr. Roy Campbell, of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said "it's not time for panic. It's a time to take action."
If not for the mosquito-control efforts in some parishes, Campbell said the state would see more cases.
The Associated Press reported at least 89 people in three states infected with West Nile, including 44 new cases confirmed Friday.
Mississippi reported a total of 22 cases as of Friday and the rest are from Texas.
During a Slidell news conference Friday releasing the latest figures, DHH Regional Medical Director Dr. Erin Brewer said "there are probably 10,000 to 12,000 people who have been infected" but experience no symptoms.
Ratard added "those that are not sick are lucky." He said they should have future immunity from antibodies created as the immune system fought off the infection.
Studies in other outbreaks around the world show that of 200 people, 179 will be infected and feel no symptoms. Another 20 will experience flulike symptoms like fever and headache, called West Nile fever. Only about one victim in 200 infected will develop encephalitis or meningitis, a swelling of the brain or brain lining.
People older than age 50 and those already fighting other diseases are most at risk, officials said. Of the four dead, one was a 53-year-old man from Folsom, and the other three were ages 83, 75 and 72.
Brewer said the best way not to get sick is "avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes." That means wearing long sleeves and pants when outdoors and wearing insect repellent, she said.
Gov. Mike Foster and Baton Rouge Mayor Bobby Simpson have declared states of emergency that they hope will help get additional funding to help combat the outbreak.
State Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell, said he's been working with other state and parish officials to get additional financial resources for mosquito control agencies and other West Nile-related activities.
Schedler, who chairs the Senate's Health and Welfare Committee, said last year Monroe-area local governments spent $3 million fighting the St. Louis encephalitis outbreak and the Legislature's Interim Emergency Board dipped into a special fund to reimburse those agencies $781,000 of their expenses.
Schedler said he thinks there is only $6 million to $7 million in the fund and, based on the projected magnitude of the outbreak, "we could exhaust that pretty easily, although that is not going to happen."
St. Tammany Mosquito Control Director Charles Palmisano said he has spent $300,000 to $400,000 more than expected and will soon exhaust his annual $2.5 million budget. His district has set aside money for emergencies and can dip into it, he said.
The East Baton Rouge Mosquito Control and Rodent Abatement District has spent nearly 10 times the money on fogging and spraying this year than was spent in all of 1998, Director Matt Yates said.
CDC's Campbell said he and a team of more than a dozen epidemiologists are looking into the outbreak. "It was detected here last year, but there is no scientific reason it has broken out here," he said.
"We are wondering why we have not seen more in Florida," Yates said.
Based on other outbreaks, West Nile cases might not stop growing until cool weather sets in October or November, reducing mosquito activity, Campbell said.
Officials say the disease will remain stored in birds over the winter for future outbreaks.
If you or someone in your family have been affected by a West Nile virus infection, we would like to tell your story to our readers. Please call Mike Dunne at 225-388-0301 or e-mail him at mdunne@theadvocate.com
g
FMCDH
My inlaws are afraid to go outside because of West Nile (along with Lyme disease ticks). They fall prey to all the latest health "scares" - if some news story says peanuts cause cancer they'll throw away all their peanuts and warn us against eating them! They also vote Democrat because Republicans want to take away their social security!
I probably have the antibodies myself since I spend lots of time outdoors, never wear bug repellent (they just don't bother me that much), and infected birds have been found in our area for the past two years.
I agree with everything you say, except for the second sentence. How can you be so very sure that this outbreak of WNV is NOT a bioterror attack? Especially, when a.) WNV had never reached our shores until 1999 and b.) six months prior to the outbreak, an Iraqi defector revealed Hussein's researchers had developed WNV as a bioweapon and planned to test it in the United States.
Understand, I'm NOT asserting that the WNV outbreak is attributable to terrorism. But I am wondering why you are certain it is not...
Shhh! Whatever keeps my inlaws from visiting works for me. :)
Maybe a test run to track how future bio-weapons can be deployed without missiles.
I have to agree. The terrorists love to brag too much.
DDT is safe: just ask the professor who ate it for 40 ...
... DDT is safe: just ask the professor who ate it for 40 years Culture/Society Editorial
Editorial Source: The Telegraph (UK) Published: 07/19/2001 Author ...
Banning DDT to control global population [Free Republic]
... Banning DDT to control global population Government Front Page News Source: ECO-LOGIC
-----ON-LINE---- Published: Jan/15/2001 Author: Paul K. Driessen Posted ...
Bring back DDT [Free Republic]
... Bring back DDT Culture/Society Editorial Source: Jewish World Review Published: April
24 2001 Author: Betsy Hart Posted on 04/24/2001 06:02:38 PDT by SJackson. ...
Audubon's Fly-by-Night Pesticide Campaign [Free Republic]
... 30 years after its successful — but untruthful — campaign against the insecticide
DDT, the Audubon Society is targeting lawn chemicals used to control grubs ...
CENTER NAMES TEN TOP SCARE CAMPAIGNS THREATENING [Free ...
... The Banning of DDT is first on the list of the Center’s Chicken Little Awards, largely
due to the alarmist, false writings of Rachel Carson. "The sole purpose ...
Killing Mosquitoes Or Killing Humans? [Free Republic]
... long since been proven wrong. By way of just one example, she claimed that DDT spraying
could wipe out the US robin population. Instead, it actually increased ...
Billions Served (benefits of biotechnology the Greens won't ...
... Of course. This is a negative effect. We always have this. Take the case of DDT.
When it was banned here in the US and the European countries, I testified ...
Scams, Scalawags, and an all-too-gullible Public...famous frauds sold to America
Bring Back DDT, and Save Lives from the Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2000.
Bring back DDT, Jewish World Review, April 24, 2001.
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