🚀 go-pugleaf

You should have spent a little less time on the english and a little
more time on the science........

You want details   ok       

My referral was to those dying on the streets of Baltimore due to
gunfire, not auto accidents. I'd have more chance to die in a cross
fire coming home from work than to contract and die from the West Nile
Virus. Welcome to Baltimore where the bullets are thicker than
mosquitos.
The West Nile Virus has thus far shown itself in few areas and the
infection rate for Humans is extremely! low. The mosquito carriers of
the WNV have a preference for birds not Humans. WNV is only propagated
from birds to mosquitos who prey on birds who are in turn infected
with WNV. Never has WNV  been shown to be carried from human to human
by a mosquito or other vector. What you may ask will happen when other
species of mosquitos pick up the virus from birds?
Nothing.
 It's already happened and were all still here.
A few things to note from the scientific literature. Particularly pay
attention to the fact that WNV is nothing humans in other parts of the
world have not dealt with before. Just because it's new here doesn't
mean it's a plague.

     Zeller HG.
    [West Nile virus: a migrating arbovirus of current interest].
   Med Trop (Mars). 1999;59(4 Pt 2):490-4. Review. French.
   PMID: 10901852; UI: 20360309

West Nile (WN) virus is a common arbovirosis in sub-Saharian Africa.
It has occasionally caused epidemics or epizootics in horses in
Mediterranean regions and southern Europe. The virus is transmitted to
humans by mosquitoes (primarily the Culex species) that are infected
by biting viremic birds. Infections in humans are usually
asymptomatic.

MY NOTE: that is, you never get sick.


Rom J Virol 1997 Jan-Dec;48(1-4):3-11
 Clinical manifestations in the West Nile virus outbreak.
   Ceausu E, Erscoiu S, Calistru P, Ispas D, et al..
 Dr. Victor Babes Clinic of Infectious and Tropical Diseases,
University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest.

During the summer of 1996 an unusual clustering of meningoencephalitis
cases was recorded in the Capital City, Bucharest, and in some
areasfrom South-East Romania............
This study included 251 patients with the diagnoses of West Nile acute
encephalitis (166 cases), acute meningitis (57 cases) and acute
febrile disease (33 cases). The patients' age ranged from 1 to 89
years (mean 51.1 years). .........
The fatality rate was 15.1% in acute encephalitis, 1.8% in acute
meningitis and 0% in the acute febrile disease.

MY NOTE: mean of 51.1 years places the majority of those infected into
an advanced age group. Fatalities of 38 out of 251 is considered a
high fatality rate for WNV ,that is, it's abnormal.


J Vector Ecol 1999 Jun;24(1):1-39
  Mosquito-borne viruses in western Europe: a review.
  Lundstrom JO
  Uppsala University, Department of Zoology, Sweden.

Several mosquito-borne arboviruses belonging to the genera Alphavirus,
Flavivirus, and Bunyavirus have been reported to occur in mosquitoes
and  to infect humans and other vertebrates in western Europe. These
zoonotic   viruses circulate in nature either in an Aedes-mammal,
Anopheles-mammal, or Culex-bird transmission cycle. Infected humans
normally do not contribute to the virus circulation. West Nile virus
(Flavivirus) caused an outbreak of fever, malaise, pain in eyes and
muscles, and headache and encephalitis in southern France during
1962-1965, and an outbreak of encephalitis with a high case-fatality
rate  in Romania during 1996. West Nile virus has been isolated from
birds,  horses, and mosquitoes in Portugal, France, the former
Czechoslovakia,  and Romania. These data, together with reports of
antibodies to West  Nile virus in birds, domestic mammals, and humans
in several other countries, show virus activity in southern and
central Europe.

Hum Pathol 2000 May;31(5):527-31
 The pathology of human West Nile Virus infection.
  Sampson BA, Ambrosi C, Charlot A, Reiber K, Veress JF,
  Armbrustmacher V
 Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, NY 10016,
USA.

West Nile Virus (WNV) was identified by immunohistochemistry (IHC)
 and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as the etiologic agent in 4
 encephalitis fatalities in New York City in the late summer of 1999.
The fatalities occurred in persons with a mean age of 81.5 years, each
of  whom had underlying medical problems. 

MY NOTE: those who died where of an advanced age and suffered
concurrent medical problems besides WNV infection. Most fatalities
here and elsewhere in the world are among those already in poor
health.


MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2000 Jul 21;49(28):640-2
   West Nile virus activity--New York and New Jersey, 2000.

 No human WNV infections were found in New York City with an onset
date after the (mosquito control) campaign was completed. Cases
continued to occur among  humans in surrounding counties that did not
undertake mosquito-control  efforts until later, suggesting that the
campaign may have reduced human risk. In May 2000, CDC issued
guidelines to direct national surveillance,prevention, and control
efforts (2) and provided funds to support these  efforts in 19 state
and local health departments where WNV transmission  had occurred or
where transmission would probably occur based on known bird migration
patterns. This report presents the findings of surveillance
activities.

MY NOTE: Mosquito control efforts do and have reduced WNV infections.
Whether it be poison or breeding ground abatement, WNV can and is
being controlled. On a personal note I'd rather see more effort put
towards controlling standing water breeding grounds then poison
spraying but that would require more effort from the populace. If you
see a bucket of water in the backyard, kick it over, simple enough.

Oh yeah one more thing, just because more dead crows are being found
carrying the WNV doesn't mean it's spreading. Previous to this year
there has been no widespread survey of dead crows to find WNV. If your
not looking your not going to find it. WNV may have been here years
ago. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.



On Fri, 06 Oct 2000 02:01:12 GMT, Michael Flinn
<ctatraining@wwbgn.com> wrote:

>
>Why, just driving down market street last night, I saw eight
>to ten of them keel over - don't have a completely accurate
>count 'cause I was trying not to run over the thousands of
>pedestrians out there at 10PM. :) 
>
>mr. baltim - 
>
>others spew, your write.

Maybe I don't speak the same english you do, but what does that mean?

>  interestingly, about twenty years
>ago, i was an english teacher.  i learned that one thing is
>extremely hard to do: teaching people in the category called
>"dull normal IQ" to include any specifics in their writing. 
>reason was this: they're completely functional, but their
>their minds have a damnably difficult time relating the
>specific to the general.     
>
>looks like the problem is alive and well.
>
>yours truly
>
>baltim wrote:
>> 
>> Blah blah blah blah blah
>> 
>> Nothing like a little alarmist spew..............
>> 
>> You want to be alarmed about something?
>> 
>> Be alarmed about the people dying on our city streets night after
>> night, or would that be stupid of us folks.
>> 
>> On Mon, 02 Oct 2000 03:18:57 GMT, Michael Flinn
>> <ctatraining@wwbgn.com> wrote:
>> 
>> >It's amazing how stupid folks are.  You're looking at a
>> >disease that within the next five years will be killing a
>> >couple thousand people a year in the tristate area.  When you
>> >multiply that across the country, you're looking at something
>> >that will kill lots more than drunk drivers, yet I"d wager
>> >you'd all be so upset, so disturbed, so indignant, soooo
>> >righteous if someone said that deaths from drunk drivers was
>> >simply a media scare.
>> >Yet west nile is, very probably, far more serious.  If you
>> >think that there exists anything like effective mosquito
>> >control - or disease control- in the US, you are effectively
>> >illiterate.
>> >
>> >Mike
>> >
>> >essex wrote:
>> >>
>> >> baltim wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > The mosquito spraying Baltimore is engaged in is more to ease the mind
>> >> > of the citizens than anything else. The temperature is dropping so the
>> >> > bugs will be irrelevant soon.
>> >>
>> >> Irrelevant until next year, that is. The WN virus is more widespread in
>> >> 2000 than it was in 1999. It is reasonable to speculate that the virus
>> >> will continue to spread unless mosquito control is effective in halting
>> >> it. While panic on anyone's part would be a wild overreaction, it is
>> >> appropriate for public health authorities to be concerned and to take
>> >> action, and it is appropriate for the public to pay attention.
>> >>
>> >> --Steve