West Nile Virus

3ofusnow · 09-04-2012, 04:02 PM

Has anyone been keeping up with the news about West Nile Virus lately? I had not realized that half of the people with the virus are also getting brain infections they don't have treatment for!

wvbreamfisherman · 09-04-2012, 05:09 PM

Ah, no. about 80% of those who contract the virus never show any symptoms.

Of those who do show symptoms, something like 80% get a mild flu-like disease.

In the remaining population, there is a chance of a viral encephalitis, but it's fairly small overall.

West Nile is one of those things I don't worry much about. One helluva lot more people die of Flu every year than West Nile.

**CozInCowtown** · 09-04-2012, 05:40 PM

I live on the east bank so I am good!

I know that my little town has had 2 folks infected, no deaths.
DC

RingTwist · 09-04-2012, 07:41 PM

I don't worry that much about West Nile, either. Yes, I prefer to avoid bites, but that's more just because mosquito bites are annoying. West Nile doesn't really enter my mind.

hummingbird · 09-04-2012, 08:25 PM

I honestly think I had West Nile one year. I had been out on a hillside picking blackberries and it was next to a ditch full of water. I got quite a few mosquito bites because I didn't think about the water being there. About two weeks later I developed Viral Encephalitis and wound up in the hospital. I don't think they did any diagnostics on my spinal fluid but just gave me supportive care like pain medication, medicine to bring the fever down and IV fluids since I didn't want to eat. I was in just three days (as best I can remember) and I finished recovering at home. It was rough and I really don't remember a whole lot of it and had to have bits and pieces told to me by my husband. I'm fine now but I don't think they ever did anything to diagnose if it was West Nile. I kinda remember that they did a spinal tap though.

wvbreamfisherman · 09-04-2012, 09:02 PM

Could have been West Nile, or LaCrosse encephalitis, or a couple other mosquito-borne viruses whose names escape me just now.

There are loads of known diseases carried by mosquitos, and probably as many that we don't recognize because they rarely have seriously bad effects on people.

Any viral encephalitis is a serious disease, and they really don't have good treatments, other than treat the symptoms and support the patient until it runs its course.

JeepThrills · 09-05-2012, 05:59 PM

I try to keep up with it since we have horses, but I don't really worry about it for myself. There have been a few cases out towards Savannah, but so far nothing close to us.

Marshmallow · 09-06-2012, 06:20 AM

We encountered a lot of mosquitoes on the nature trails this week in eastern North Carolina. We did spray down really well with repellant, but they were out in force. We had the kids with us, so we didn't stay out long because of all the incidences of West Nile we've been reading about lately.

carmen · 09-06-2012, 05:53 PM

I hate mosquito bites, one got in the house last night, he decided to bite me & up down while I slept. I found out when I woke up this morning with marks all over me. I noticed a few reports but none in our area (thankfully).