Katherine Craven, MA

School building czar recovering from bout with West Nile virus

By JESSICA VAN SACK
The Patriot Ledger

Katherine Craven's latest directive is not of a bureaucratic nature.

The state's school building czar, who tangled with Quincy officials over the city's high school proposal, is one of three state residents who contracted the potentially deadly West Nile virus this year.

‘‘To have a mosquito borne illness when you don't go outside ever is really an unlucky sort of thing,'' said Craven, one of the few pregnant women in the country to have contracted the disease.

Her message to residents: ‘‘When they tell you to take caution, take caution.

‘‘If I had known then what I know now, I would have been covered head-to-toe in DEET.''

Craven, a 32-year-old West Roxbury resident, spoke openly yesterday about her fears of the virus' impact on her unborn daughter, her third child.

‘‘You have to think everything will be fine for the baby,'' said Craven, who is nearly seven months pregnant.

According to the national Centers for Disease Control, at least one case of mother-to-child transmission of West Nile was reported in 2002.

Craven is the first person in Massachusetts diagnosed with West Nile in two years. Other cases have been reported in Newton and Watertown.

Craven learned that she had tested positive for West Nile on Friday, the day Gov. Mitt Romney declared a public health alert because of West Nile and Eastern equine encephalitis, another disease transmitted by mosquitoes.

This year, 1,302 cases of West Nile have been reported in 38 states and 29 people have died.

Craven spent the first week of September at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with flu-like symptoms.

Her husband, who is a doctor, thought at first she had viral meningitis, which can be one of the causes of West Nile.

West Nile virus causes illnesses that vary from a mild fever to more serious diseases such as encephalitis or meningitis.

Although her doctors have urged her to take time off, Craven said she is gradually feeling better and anxious to get back to work.

Craven, who was a top lieutenant of former House Speaker Thomas Finneran before being appointed to the building authority, oversees state spending on school construction.

While sick, she took work calls on her cell phone, said her friend, state Rep. Ronald Mariano, D-Quincy. Craven also said she received daily deliveries from her office.

The West Nile cases follow two deaths from Eastern equine encephalitis during the past month on the South Shore.

The disease claimed the lives of a 5-year-old Halifax girl and an 85-year-old Kingston man.

West Nile virus is not as dangerous as Eastern equine encephalitis, with fewer than 1 percent of infected people becoming seriously ill.

In both diseases, birds spread the virus to mosquitoes, and in turn, mosquitoes infect horses, birds and people.

Mosquitoes carrying encephalitis or West Nile virus had been found this summer in Kingston, Carver, Halifax, Duxbury, Pembroke, Hanover, Norwell, Rockland and Abington.

Reach Jessica Van Sack at jvansack@ledger.com.

Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Tuesday, September 20, 2005