• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

West Nile Virus Called Pervasive Precautions Vital in Fighting Disease's Spread

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 18:01 CDT

SHREVEPORT - Some people want to know whether West Nile virus patients live in their neighborhoods. But state health officials reply the information is irrelevant.

"We should know what part of town it's in," said George Houston, 77, of Shreveport. "Then we'd know how to be more careful there. I would like to know. If it's some part of town, then I'll avoid it."

The virus is a permanent fixture throughout Louisiana, and everyone should be taking precautions against mosquito bites, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist.

"Don't think you are safe because you're not near anything. Everyone in Louisiana is at risk from now until December," he said.

That's part of the reason state health officials are releasing fewer details about people who have been diagnosed with the virus this year than last.

Twenty-six have been diagnosed this year, 15 of them with the "neuroinvasive" illness that can cause death or brain damage. Two have died; their families didn't want even their parishes listed, Ratard has said.

St. Bernard Parish personnel director Kevin Clark, recuperating at home after a 10-day hospital stay, said he is one of the 26 patients.

He was bitten while he mowed his lawn July 21, he said, and there's a lesson to his illness: "It's a heads-up to everybody that anybody is susceptible."

Clark said he wasn't wearing mosquito repellent or long sleeves and pants as state health officials recommend as protection from mosquito bites. He didn't even know he was bitten; a friend who visited him in the hospital pointed out two bites on his arm.

Clark said he began feeling ill the day after he mowed the lawn, and was admitted to Chalmette Medical Center on July 24 with a high fever that lasted about eight days.

Wil Schulte, mosquito control supervisor for the parish, said he suggested the blood test for West Nile when he heard the symptoms while asking Clark to approve more drivers to spray for mosquitoes.

"When you get the flu in Arabi in the summer, that ain't no flu," Schulte said.

Two of the 15 people with neuroinvasive disease are in Caddo Parish. There are three each in East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes; two in Ouachita Parish, and one each in Jefferson, Orleans, Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Terrebonne parishes.

Five more - two in Livingston and one each in East Baton Rouge, St. Landry and Ouachita parishes - have the less serious West Nile fever, and six have no symptoms at all. Those six live in Orleans, Vernon, Bossier, Natchitoches, DeSoto and Livingston parishes.

If the neighborhood where someone became ill is given, "It's possible that people in the neighborhood are very concerned, but people three miles away aren't concerned. There's a danger in that," Ratard said. "People everywhere are at risk for West Nile."

DHH also wants to keep the identities of people with the virus anonymous, he said.

Ratard also has stressed that early warning systems, such as dead birds, aren't conclusive because there can be two to four weeks between the bite which spreads the disease and official confirmation that someone has it, making it hard to tell just when and where the patient was infected.

"When it's West Nile cases, don't count on people-case reportings, don't count on bird reportings. Everyone must take precautions."

Precautions remain the same as they've been since the virus was first found in Louisiana four years ago: eliminate standing water from yards; make sure houses have good screens; if you must be out at dusk or dawn, wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts, and use mosquito repellant.

ON THE INTERNET:

Fight the Bite Louisiana: http://www.

FightTheBiteLouisiana.com

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals:

http://www.oph.dhh.louisiana.gov/West Nile virus:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

More News in this Category