Posted on 10/05/2002 8:10:22 AM PDT by 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 paralysiscaused by spinal cord damageis 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."
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."
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.
Actually, I think most people can imagine that it could be. They just aren't assuming, as you are, that it must be.
THE REPUBLICANS TOOK BACK THE SENATE.
Win one for the Gipper! God Bless You Reagan, We Will Never Forget Your Great Service and Leadership - We here on FR will carry on your great work with diligence. Thanks for the Memories and Inspiration!
Could/would they tell us that it was an attack even if they knew? Panic! You can't defend against panic.
Yup. I agree. I thought that was a little silly (but didn't say so) because our birds go there too.
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?
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