"You're so sick its like.."--wait wait--WE CARE

September 12, 2004

Woman tells of battle with West Nile virus
One bit puts life on hold
New traps monitor mosquitoes
Expert says use DEET to avoid being a meal

By Dan D'Ambrosio
Herald Staff Writer


Liz LaBonte says the commonly used phrase, "flu-like symptoms," doesn't even begin to describe what it's like to come down with West Nile virus.


Sterling Schaaf, district manager with the Animas Mosquito Control District, checks a trap off County Road 203 on Thursday. The traps are being used for the first time to track mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus. Two virus-carrying insects have been found since May.

"I woke up very sick a month ago with really bad muscle pain all over, worse than the flu," LaBonte said. "I can't believe one little bug can make you so sick."

LaBonte, 41, said she was "sick as a dog" for 10 days when the virus first struck, and is just now beginning to feel like herself again, a month later.

"It's kind of like this roller coaster," she said. "Right when you start feeling good, all of a sudden - boom - internally your whole body is just a mess."

As a handicap specialist at Needham Elementary School, LaBonte said she was fortunate to be able to lie on the couch, trying to get well, after contracting the virus in late July during her summer vacation.

"Your life is going to be on hold for five to 10 days," LaBonte said. "I don't know how severe I had this thing. I know for five to 10 days I wanted to be in somebody else's body."

In addition to the muscle and joint pain and headaches, LaBonte suffered from shortness of breath, an unusual red rash in her midsection, and difficulty in thinking clearly.

"The shortness of breath went on for a very long time," she said. "I'm a very energetic person and I'm pretty healthy. I run a lot and exercise a lot."

LaBonte said the simple act of sitting up after lying down awhile would leave her short of breath. No fun, especially when added to the muddled thought processes she had to deal with. The words coming out of LaBonte's mouth didn't always match the thoughts she was having in her head.

"It was very frustrating," she said. "I would really have to slow myself down. That part was weird. I didn't care for that."

The rash alerted her doctors at La Plata Family Medicine to the possibility of West Nile before her blood test came back positive. But it was the lumps near her right ear that sent LaBonte to the doctor's office to begin with.

"One of them was kind of big and hard.," she said. "I was sure I had West Nile. The lump thing scared me. I thought, 'What if I have something else?'"

The lumps went away after about five days and were attributed to the virus, which can cause swelling in lymph glands.

West Nile virus attacks the central nervous system and causes severe illness in about one out of 150 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Severe symptoms can include high fever, disorientation, vision loss, numbness and paralysis, according to the CDC. Neurological effects may be permanent.

About 20 percent of people infected with the virus have symptoms like LaBonte's, which include fever, headaches and body aches, and a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back, while 80 percent of people infected with the virus show no symptoms at all.

As of Sept. 7, the CDC was reporting 1,191 cases of West Nile virus nationwide, and 30 deaths.

At its most severe, West Nile virus develops into a neuroinvasive disease, including West Nile meningitis and West Nile encephalitis, which causes inflammation of the brain, the membrane around the brain and the spinal cord, and requires hospitalization.

Although this serious form of the illness can occur in anyone, people over 50, and those whose immune systems have been compromised, are most at risk.

One of the questions LaBonte gets most often is, does she remember the bite that brought on the virus? Symptoms typically show up between three and 14 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito, according to the CDC.

LaBonte does recall slapping a mosquito on her arm during a visit to California about two weeks before she became sick. But in the end, she didn't spend a great deal of time worrying about when and where the bite came.

"You're so sick it's like, who cares?" LaBonte said.

Reach Staff Writer Dan D'Ambrosio here .
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