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West Nile Virus Alert - Don't Panic. Again.
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3598 Reads
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 Let the paranoia resume: the first case of West Nile virus in a human for the year has been reported somewhere in east L.A. County - county health officials won't say where.
Yes, somewhere in eastern L.A. County, some old man has been suffering "fevers and altered consciousness," according to this very vague AP report on the even vaguer warning from L.A. County Department of Health Services ...
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But let's keep this in perspective: Last year, West Nile virus infected 800 Californians and killed 27 of them. Of those, 329 L.A. County folk got sick from it, and 13 died.
Statistically speaking, you're more likely to get crushed in a wreck on the 405, or succumb years from now to the lung disease that your little clove cigarette habit is growing, than you are to die of West Nile virus.
Just to repeat the advice we gave last summer:
Short version: - Clean your pool daily
- Clean your ornamental pond and stock it with mosquito fish
- Maintain your septic tank
- Boaters, keep your bilges empty
- Empty anything outside that gathers more than half an inch of water to keep mosquitos from breeding
- Report dead birds (a sign of WNV infection) to the county hotline at (877) 968-2473, or WNV-BIRD.
- Use insect repellent
What are the symptoms? Here's the straight dope from WestNileVirusFacts.org: Most people who are infected with the West Nile virus will not have any type of illness. It is estimated that 20% of the people who become infected will develop West Nile fever: mild symptoms, including fever, headache, and body aches, occasionally with a skin rash on the trunk of the body and swollen lymph glands.
The symptoms of severe infection (West Nile encephalitis or meningitis) include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis. It is estimated that 1 in 150 persons infected with the West Nile virus will develop a more severe form of disease. Executive summary: Yes, it's incurable. No, it's not guaranteed to kill you, not even close. Yes, you should avoid mosquito bites. No, you should not panic.
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| Posted by: mack_reed on Tuesday, February 08, 2005 - 11:00 PM
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