A West Nile Virus Survivor
PLAY Video
By Ken Amaro
First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The Centers for Disease Control says when someone is infected with the West Nile Virus, one of three things happen. 1 - There are no symptons. 2 - There is West Nile Fever. 3 - There is severe West Nile Disease such as Meningitis or Encephalitis.
Last year, 70-year old Willie Gay was stricken with the West Nile Virus and recovered to say "do not ignore" the symptons.
July 2005 was the first time Wille Gay was able to return home.
"I left in July and came back in July," says Gay.
For the past year the military veteran was in the battle of his life.
"I was sick and the doctors didn't think I would make it," says Gay.
Last Summer, Gay was sitting on his front porch, as he usualy does, and was bitten by mosquito.
Gay says, "When a mosquito bites you, its not the bite. It is what it leaves behind when it bites you."
A few days later Gay wasn't feeling well and visited a hospital emergency room. However he was discharged with a sinus infection.
But he said his condition got worse.
"I knew I was sick, I didn't know how sick," says Gay.
He made another trip to the hospital.
"I had a fever so bad, I couldn't break it."
And then they told him the diagnosis - he had the West Nile Virus.
"When they told me, I thought I was going to die," says Gay.
Gay had so many complications, at one point they called in his family. Eventually, he was moved to a Veterans Hospital for a lengthy stay.
He recovered.
"I'm blessed, I wasn't ready to die," says Gay.
How do you know if you've contracted the West Nile Virus?
Ruth Voss is an Epidemiologist Nurse.
She says you can have it and not know it. "That is very common from what we understand," says Voss.
If you have symptopns they would be fevers, headaches, stiffness around the neck.
Voss says you have to keep an eye on your condition.
"If you're not feeling well and your body temperature is not improving, call your doctor,"
says Voss.
Two years ago, the C-D-C concerned about misdiagnosis, cautioned doctors about confusing viral meningitis with the West Nile Virus.
The Duval County Health Department says prevention is the key. Here are some tips:
Use repellent containing DEET if you're outdoors.
Avoid being outdoors during dusk or dawn hours. That's when mosquitoes are most active.
Wear clothing that covers your skin.
Get rid of any standing water around your home.
Created: 10/25/2005 5:50:39 PM
Updated: 10/25/2005 6:51:01 PM
Edited by Ken Amaro, Consumer Reporter
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Latricia Spencer, FL-Victim
Firstcoastnews.com
Family of West Nile Virus Victim Speaks
Latricia Spencer
By Ken Amaro
First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Letisha Spencer remembers her mother.
"She loved to cook," says Spencer.
And she loved to entertain her friends, family and neighbors.
Letisha Spencer says her mother would grill outdoors, ten feet from a ditch full of standing water.
Spencer believes her mom was grilling when she was bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile Virus.
That was on a Sunday.
Two days later she was rushed to Shands Jacksonville.
LaTricia Spencer died one week later.
The family believes she was treated for viral meningitis, instead of West Nile Virus.
"They messed up, they did," says Spencer.
By law, Shands cannot discuss the patient's condition or treatment.
But the death captured news headlines and caused the Duval County Health Department to issue a West Nile Virus alert last Friday.
Spencer was also a diabetic and had no insurance.
"What we need the most is help to bury our momma," says Spencer.
The Spencer family is telling anyone who would listen, if you're going outdoors use insect repellent.
The city's Mosquito Control treated the ditch behind the Spencer's apartment, and plans to treat it again.
Shands is reportedly conducting an autopsy and will forward the cause of death in a death certificate to the funeral home.
Anyone who would like to help the family can contact the Vystar Credit Union on Dunn Avenue.
First Coast News
Dorothy Mahl, OH- Victim
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Dorothy Mahl, 88, was teacher in Covington
West Nile virus suspected
By Rebecca Goodman
Enquirer staff writer
FORT WRIGHT - Dorothy Burk Mahl, a retired teacher at John G. Carlisle School in Covington, died Friday evening at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. The cause was West Nile virus, according to her brother, Willard Burk of Fort Thomas. The Fort Wright resident was 88.
She was a "very nice person, very friendly and smart," her brother said. After his wife died when his daughter, Carolyn Cruse of Villa Hills, was a child, Mrs. Mahl helped to raise her.
"Dorothy always was willing to take Carolyn - take her shopping or do anything with her. She was a second mother to my daughter."
Born in Covington to William and Alma Burk, Mrs. Mahl graduated from Eastern State Teachers College in Richmond. She taught fifth grade at Carlisle until about 20 years ago.
She liked to garden and to play bridge. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. She also was a member and former secretary of the Covington Art Club.
She became ill about 10 days ago. "She was very spry and did a lot of yard work," her brother said.
Northern Kentucky health officials say tests are being done to confirm that her death resulted from West Nile, which is carried by mosquitoes.
Mrs. Mahl's husband, Karl Mahl, died in 1985.
Survivors include her brother; a son, Karl Mahl Jr. of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; a sister, Betty O'Toole of Crestview Hills; and one grandchild.
Visitation is 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. today followed by the funeral at Swindler & Currin Funeral Home, Latonia. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
Memorials: American Heart Association, 333 Guthrie St, Suite 207, Louisville, KY. 40202.
E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com
Dorothy Mahl, 88, was teacher in Covington
West Nile virus suspected
By Rebecca Goodman
Enquirer staff writer
FORT WRIGHT - Dorothy Burk Mahl, a retired teacher at John G. Carlisle School in Covington, died Friday evening at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. The cause was West Nile virus, according to her brother, Willard Burk of Fort Thomas. The Fort Wright resident was 88.
She was a "very nice person, very friendly and smart," her brother said. After his wife died when his daughter, Carolyn Cruse of Villa Hills, was a child, Mrs. Mahl helped to raise her.
"Dorothy always was willing to take Carolyn - take her shopping or do anything with her. She was a second mother to my daughter."
Born in Covington to William and Alma Burk, Mrs. Mahl graduated from Eastern State Teachers College in Richmond. She taught fifth grade at Carlisle until about 20 years ago.
She liked to garden and to play bridge. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. She also was a member and former secretary of the Covington Art Club.
She became ill about 10 days ago. "She was very spry and did a lot of yard work," her brother said.
Northern Kentucky health officials say tests are being done to confirm that her death resulted from West Nile, which is carried by mosquitoes.
Mrs. Mahl's husband, Karl Mahl, died in 1985.
Survivors include her brother; a son, Karl Mahl Jr. of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; a sister, Betty O'Toole of Crestview Hills; and one grandchild.
Visitation is 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. today followed by the funeral at Swindler & Currin Funeral Home, Latonia. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
Memorials: American Heart Association, 333 Guthrie St, Suite 207, Louisville, KY. 40202.
E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com
Friday, October 21, 2005
Ellis "Junior" Holloway
Posted on Fri, Oct. 21, 2005
Ga. man dies from complications related to West Nile virus
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ga. - A 63-year-old retired house painter died from complications related to the West Nile virus, the first known death from the mosquito-born disease in Georgia this year.
Ellis "Junior" Holloway thought he had the flu, but died two weeks later, his family said. "He'd been ill, vomiting for about three or four days, before he went to the hospital," said Lois Gentry, Holloway's sister.
There have been 15 reported cases of the virus in Georgia this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Last year, the state had 22 human cases of West Nile virus, none of which were fatal, according to the Georgia Division of Public Health.
In most cases, the disease is spread from mosquitoes that have bitten infected birds. In a small portion of cases, the virus is spread through blood transfusions, organ transplants and breast-feeding, the CDC said.
Victims often suffer mild flu-like symptoms, but the virus can cause deadly inflammation of the brain.
Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, http://www.ledger-enquirer.com
Ga. man dies from complications related to West Nile virus
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ga. - A 63-year-old retired house painter died from complications related to the West Nile virus, the first known death from the mosquito-born disease in Georgia this year.
Ellis "Junior" Holloway thought he had the flu, but died two weeks later, his family said. "He'd been ill, vomiting for about three or four days, before he went to the hospital," said Lois Gentry, Holloway's sister.
There have been 15 reported cases of the virus in Georgia this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Last year, the state had 22 human cases of West Nile virus, none of which were fatal, according to the Georgia Division of Public Health.
In most cases, the disease is spread from mosquitoes that have bitten infected birds. In a small portion of cases, the virus is spread through blood transfusions, organ transplants and breast-feeding, the CDC said.
Victims often suffer mild flu-like symptoms, but the virus can cause deadly inflammation of the brain.
Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, http://www.ledger-enquirer.com
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Jim Stuerebaut-IL
Local man survives first Illinois confirmed 2005 West Nile case
BY TODD SHIELDS
STAFF WRITER
"It's like being struck by lightning," recalled Rolling Meadows resident Jim Stuerebaut, the first Illinois resident confirmed to have contracted West Nile virus in 2005.
"I enjoyed being outdoors, golf and working around the house," said Stuerebaut, 55, who works in the accounting office of a Chicago hotel.
"It all happened fast, and it has been very, very difficult. No one can know what this is like unless they have it. No one," Stuerebaut said last week in an exclusive interview with the Review.
Although the Cook County Department of Public Health has not been releasing the names and hometowns of county residents with West Nile virus, with Stuerebaut's permission, department spokeswoman Kitty Loewy confirmed his identity to the Review and his status as the state's first confirmed person to get the virus this year.
Fitted with a brace to help him walk, Stuerebaut still uses a wheelchair around his home. A yard ramp was built up to the front door. He works two days a week and attends physical therapy sessions the other three days.
He said he feels better, but the affliction's ceaseless strain on a person's will to be healthy and lively again is evident in his voice.
"I'm trying to adapt to this change and get back to a normal life," he said.
Because Stuerebaut had been camping this summer in south-central Michigan during the incubation period, the Cook County Department of Public Health cannot determine if he acquired the virus in Illinois.
Stuerebaut said he began having intense flu symptoms July 5, followed by a month's stay in a hospital, during which a laboratory for the Illinois Department of Public Health tested his blood.
Both he and his wife, Grace Gargantiel, continue to seek Web site information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, but no cures or vaccines have been developed.
"And we've contacted government offices in Springfield to no real avail. All you can do is spray yourself with bug repellent," she said. "Jim is getting better now. Before, he couldn't get out of bed, but now he can.
"It's a terrible disease, and we never really knew much about it and didn't care. Now we know how paralyzing West Nile can be."
Illinois Department of Public Health officials said symptoms usually occur 14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito, and people older than 50 years are at highest risk. The most severe cases cause paralysis or death.
In suburban Cook County, 72 cases of West Nile virus have been reported this year. Four people with the virus have died, but three succumbed to other causes, Loewy said.
In Illinois, eight deaths have occurred among 218 reported cases this year. In 2002, Illinois counted more West Nile virus cases, 884, and deaths, 67, than any state in the nation.
Todd Shields can be reached at tshields@pioneerlocal.com.
BY TODD SHIELDS
STAFF WRITER
"It's like being struck by lightning," recalled Rolling Meadows resident Jim Stuerebaut, the first Illinois resident confirmed to have contracted West Nile virus in 2005.
"I enjoyed being outdoors, golf and working around the house," said Stuerebaut, 55, who works in the accounting office of a Chicago hotel.
"It all happened fast, and it has been very, very difficult. No one can know what this is like unless they have it. No one," Stuerebaut said last week in an exclusive interview with the Review.
Although the Cook County Department of Public Health has not been releasing the names and hometowns of county residents with West Nile virus, with Stuerebaut's permission, department spokeswoman Kitty Loewy confirmed his identity to the Review and his status as the state's first confirmed person to get the virus this year.
Fitted with a brace to help him walk, Stuerebaut still uses a wheelchair around his home. A yard ramp was built up to the front door. He works two days a week and attends physical therapy sessions the other three days.
He said he feels better, but the affliction's ceaseless strain on a person's will to be healthy and lively again is evident in his voice.
"I'm trying to adapt to this change and get back to a normal life," he said.
Because Stuerebaut had been camping this summer in south-central Michigan during the incubation period, the Cook County Department of Public Health cannot determine if he acquired the virus in Illinois.
Stuerebaut said he began having intense flu symptoms July 5, followed by a month's stay in a hospital, during which a laboratory for the Illinois Department of Public Health tested his blood.
Both he and his wife, Grace Gargantiel, continue to seek Web site information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, but no cures or vaccines have been developed.
"And we've contacted government offices in Springfield to no real avail. All you can do is spray yourself with bug repellent," she said. "Jim is getting better now. Before, he couldn't get out of bed, but now he can.
"It's a terrible disease, and we never really knew much about it and didn't care. Now we know how paralyzing West Nile can be."
Illinois Department of Public Health officials said symptoms usually occur 14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito, and people older than 50 years are at highest risk. The most severe cases cause paralysis or death.
In suburban Cook County, 72 cases of West Nile virus have been reported this year. Four people with the virus have died, but three succumbed to other causes, Loewy said.
In Illinois, eight deaths have occurred among 218 reported cases this year. In 2002, Illinois counted more West Nile virus cases, 884, and deaths, 67, than any state in the nation.
Todd Shields can be reached at tshields@pioneerlocal.com.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Peter Carpenter, CA-Victim
Stanislaus County Man Dies From West Nile Virus
(AP) MODESTO A 63-year-old Patterson man has died from complications from West Nile virus.
Stanislaus County health officials say the man, identified in the Modesto Bee as Peter Carpenter, died Friday in a Turlock hospital.
Three more cases of West Nile virus had been confirmed in the county, bringing the total number of cases to 85 this year.
(AP) MODESTO A 63-year-old Patterson man has died from complications from West Nile virus.
Stanislaus County health officials say the man, identified in the Modesto Bee as Peter Carpenter, died Friday in a Turlock hospital.
Three more cases of West Nile virus had been confirmed in the county, bringing the total number of cases to 85 this year.
John T. Phillips Jr., TX-Victim
Man's death linked to West Nile
Wylie: Results pending; daughter says he was ailing before diagnosis
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 19, 2005
By BILL LODGE / The Dallas Morning News
A Wylie man who died Saturday may be the first person to die from the West Nile virus in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year, Collin County officials said Tuesday.
The man, identified by his family as John T. Phillips Jr., 78, spent three weeks at Medical Center of Plano before his death.
"Although preliminary lab reports indicated that this gentleman was not positive for WNV, lab results received today indicate otherwise," said Jamie Nicolay, the county's health educator. She said officials are not aware of another West Nile death this year.
Mr. Phillips' daughter, Gail Beltz, said Tuesday that her father was diagnosed as having the virus a week and a half ago. She received confirmation of the diagnosis from health officials Monday.
She said she thinks her father, who was already in poor health, was infected while planting bushes and watering shrubs at the home where he lived with his wife on Windsor Drive, just south of Lake Lavon.
"You just can't believe a mosquito bite can do this. It's just incomprehensible," Ms. Beltz said.
Ms. Nicolay said lab tests showed that Mr. Phillips had two West Nile antibodies – the state's requirement for declaring a case of the virus.
One Plano resident and one in Parker were diagnosed with West Nile this year. Both have fully recovered, Ms. Nicolay said.
Wylie officials said mosquitoes trapped in Mr. Phillips' neighborhood have not tested positive for the virus. They scheduled mosquito fogging from midnight until 5 a.m. today in four subdivisions – Kensington Manor, Harvest Bend, Pointe North and Meadowview estates.
Ms. Nicolay said infected mosquitoes have been trapped in Plano, McKinney, Richardson and unincorporated areas.
County officials said residents should eliminate standing water, use mosquito repellant that contains DEET and remain indoors at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
Most people who come in contact with West Nile do not have adverse reactions.
Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 80 percent of people infected with West Nile never develop noticeable illnesses.
Among those who do, however, about 0.75 percent develop life-threatening illnesses, such as encephalitis and meningitis, according to the CDC.
Staff writer Paul Meyer contributed to this report.
E-mail blodge@dallasnews.com
Wylie: Results pending; daughter says he was ailing before diagnosis
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 19, 2005
By BILL LODGE / The Dallas Morning News
A Wylie man who died Saturday may be the first person to die from the West Nile virus in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year, Collin County officials said Tuesday.
The man, identified by his family as John T. Phillips Jr., 78, spent three weeks at Medical Center of Plano before his death.
"Although preliminary lab reports indicated that this gentleman was not positive for WNV, lab results received today indicate otherwise," said Jamie Nicolay, the county's health educator. She said officials are not aware of another West Nile death this year.
Mr. Phillips' daughter, Gail Beltz, said Tuesday that her father was diagnosed as having the virus a week and a half ago. She received confirmation of the diagnosis from health officials Monday.
She said she thinks her father, who was already in poor health, was infected while planting bushes and watering shrubs at the home where he lived with his wife on Windsor Drive, just south of Lake Lavon.
"You just can't believe a mosquito bite can do this. It's just incomprehensible," Ms. Beltz said.
Ms. Nicolay said lab tests showed that Mr. Phillips had two West Nile antibodies – the state's requirement for declaring a case of the virus.
One Plano resident and one in Parker were diagnosed with West Nile this year. Both have fully recovered, Ms. Nicolay said.
Wylie officials said mosquitoes trapped in Mr. Phillips' neighborhood have not tested positive for the virus. They scheduled mosquito fogging from midnight until 5 a.m. today in four subdivisions – Kensington Manor, Harvest Bend, Pointe North and Meadowview estates.
Ms. Nicolay said infected mosquitoes have been trapped in Plano, McKinney, Richardson and unincorporated areas.
County officials said residents should eliminate standing water, use mosquito repellant that contains DEET and remain indoors at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
Most people who come in contact with West Nile do not have adverse reactions.
Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 80 percent of people infected with West Nile never develop noticeable illnesses.
Among those who do, however, about 0.75 percent develop life-threatening illnesses, such as encephalitis and meningitis, according to the CDC.
Staff writer Paul Meyer contributed to this report.
E-mail blodge@dallasnews.com
Alan Bugg, NM-Victim
Man who died from West Nile virus was from Tucumcari
Last Update: 10/19/2005 8:20:14 AM
By: Associated Press
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) - A Tucumcari woman says she’s angry that the state Department of Health doesn’t do more to educate the public about the West Nile virus.
Catherine Bugg says she’s also upset the agency doesn’t do more to help put a stop to the mosquitoes that carry the disease.
Bugg says her husband, 50-year-old Alan Bugg, was the second New Mexican to die this year from a West Nile viral infection.
Bugg says the department just stated that a 50-year-old male died of a disease, but she says the male was a person, and she wants to put a face on it.
Alan Bugg, who survived a simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant in June, died October 7th.
Department officials say privacy laws permit them to disclose only the ages and home counties of West Nile virus victims.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Last Update: 10/19/2005 8:20:14 AM
By: Associated Press
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) - A Tucumcari woman says she’s angry that the state Department of Health doesn’t do more to educate the public about the West Nile virus.
Catherine Bugg says she’s also upset the agency doesn’t do more to help put a stop to the mosquitoes that carry the disease.
Bugg says her husband, 50-year-old Alan Bugg, was the second New Mexican to die this year from a West Nile viral infection.
Bugg says the department just stated that a 50-year-old male died of a disease, but she says the male was a person, and she wants to put a face on it.
Alan Bugg, who survived a simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant in June, died October 7th.
Department officials say privacy laws permit them to disclose only the ages and home counties of West Nile virus victims.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Friday, October 14, 2005
Craig Beard, MT-Victim
Powell man first victim of West Nile in state
A 53-year-old Powell man died Oct. 4 in a Billings hospital of encephalitis derived from the West Nile virus.
The victim was Craig Baird.
”He was imuneocompromised,“ said Kelly Weidebach of Cheyenne, surveillance epidemiologist for the Wyoming Department of Health.
Barid's wife was quoted in press accounts saying her husband recently had a kidney transplant.
Weidenbach said the death was the first this year in Wyoming attributed to West Nile virus.
The incident was the seventh case of the illness confirmed in the state in 2005, she added.
The other victims all are recovering, although some still show symptoms, she added.
They are from Sheridan, Natrona, Goshen, Weston and Campbell counties.
Weidenbach said Park County residents have little to fear from West Nile virus at this time of the year.
”Since the weather has been getting colder, we feel this is the end of the West Nile season,“ she said.
Incubation of the disease usually is 3-14 days from the time an infected mosquito bites a victim, she added. That means Baird likely contracted the illness about Sept. 20, and probably in Park County.
Mosquitoes ”generally die off once we've had our first freeze“ or snowfall, she said.
”The risk is low“ at this late point in the season, which peaks in late July or in August.
Even among those bitten by infected mosquitoes, West Nile virus causes neurological invasive illness in less than one percent of victims, Weidenbach added.
Eighty percent of victims experience no symptoms at all, she said.
Since 2002, when West Nile virus first appeared in Wyoming, there have been 10 human deaths, counting Baird, Weidenbach said.
In 2002 there were two human cases and no deaths; in 2003 there were 393 cases and nine human deaths; in 2004 there were 10 cases; and this year there have been seven cases and one death.
To learn more about West Nile virus and how to prevent it, visit www.badskeeter.com.
A 53-year-old Powell man died Oct. 4 in a Billings hospital of encephalitis derived from the West Nile virus.
The victim was Craig Baird.
”He was imuneocompromised,“ said Kelly Weidebach of Cheyenne, surveillance epidemiologist for the Wyoming Department of Health.
Barid's wife was quoted in press accounts saying her husband recently had a kidney transplant.
Weidenbach said the death was the first this year in Wyoming attributed to West Nile virus.
The incident was the seventh case of the illness confirmed in the state in 2005, she added.
The other victims all are recovering, although some still show symptoms, she added.
They are from Sheridan, Natrona, Goshen, Weston and Campbell counties.
Weidenbach said Park County residents have little to fear from West Nile virus at this time of the year.
”Since the weather has been getting colder, we feel this is the end of the West Nile season,“ she said.
Incubation of the disease usually is 3-14 days from the time an infected mosquito bites a victim, she added. That means Baird likely contracted the illness about Sept. 20, and probably in Park County.
Mosquitoes ”generally die off once we've had our first freeze“ or snowfall, she said.
”The risk is low“ at this late point in the season, which peaks in late July or in August.
Even among those bitten by infected mosquitoes, West Nile virus causes neurological invasive illness in less than one percent of victims, Weidenbach added.
Eighty percent of victims experience no symptoms at all, she said.
Since 2002, when West Nile virus first appeared in Wyoming, there have been 10 human deaths, counting Baird, Weidenbach said.
In 2002 there were two human cases and no deaths; in 2003 there were 393 cases and nine human deaths; in 2004 there were 10 cases; and this year there have been seven cases and one death.
To learn more about West Nile virus and how to prevent it, visit www.badskeeter.com.
Dorothy Burk Mahl, OH-Victim
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
West Nile death suspected
Woman, 88, had enjoyed being outdoors
By Andrea Remke
Enquirer staff writer
ADVERTISEMENT
FORT WRIGHT - An 88-year-old retired Covington teacher who enjoyed doing yard word is believed to have died of West Nile virus, according to her brother Willard Burk of Fort Thomas. Tests are pending to confirm the cause of death.
Dorothy Burk Mahl, who had taught at John G. Carlisle School, died Friday evening at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. Mahl was a resident of Fort Wright.
The Northern Kentucky Independent Health District would confirm only that the death of a Kenton County woman Friday was believed due to West Nile. Officials would not release a name, citing privacy laws. Health department spokeswoman Emily Gresham said samples were sent to the Kentucky Public Health Lab in Frankfort, where more sophisticated tests can be performed.
"If confirmed (by the state), it would be the first West Nile death this year in Kentucky," Gresham said.
Burk said his sister was a "very nice person, very friendly and smart." After his wife's death, Mahl helped him raise his daughter, Carolyn Cruse of Villa Hills.
"Dorothy always was willing to take Carolyn - take her shopping or do anything with her. She was a second mother to my daughter."
Born in Covington to William and Alma Burk, Mahl graduated from Eastern State Teachers College in Richmond. She taught fifth grade at John G. Carlisle School until about 20 years ago.
She liked to garden and to play bridge. She was a member of the PTA, the 620 Club, the Eastern Kentucky Alumni Association, the Retired Teachers Association, Delta Kappa Gamma and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.
She was also a member and former secretary of the Covington Art Club.
She became ill about 10 days ago.
Mrs. Mahl's husband, Karl Mahl, died in 1985. In addition to her brother, survivors include a son, Karl Mahl Jr. of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; a sister, Betty O'Toole of Crestview Hills; and one grandchild.
Visitation is 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. today followed by the funeral at Swindler & Currin Funeral Home, 214 West Southern Ave. in Latonia. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
Memorials can be made to the American Heart Association, 333 Guthrie Street, Suite 207, Louisville, KY 40202.
Through last week, Health department spokesman Gresham said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 55 deaths this year across the nation from West Nile virus.
People who get the virus, primarily transmitted to humans through mosquitoes, usually show flu-like symptoms such as aches, pains and fever, Gresham said.
Although the mosquito population dies off as it gets colder, many cases still occur in late August and September, Gresham said.
The health department also monitors West Nile cases in birds and horses. There have not been any cases in either animal reported in the Boone, Campbell, Kenton or Grant county areas, but six horses and two birds tested positive in other parts of the state, according to the department.
If confirmed, Friday's death would be the fourth human case of West Nile in Kentucky this year. In two of the cases, a Kenton County man and a Grant County woman were hospitalized and are recovering, Gresham said. The other case was in the Louisville area.
Rebecca Goodman contributed to this report. E-mail aremke@enquirer.com
West Nile death suspected
Woman, 88, had enjoyed being outdoors
By Andrea Remke
Enquirer staff writer
ADVERTISEMENT
FORT WRIGHT - An 88-year-old retired Covington teacher who enjoyed doing yard word is believed to have died of West Nile virus, according to her brother Willard Burk of Fort Thomas. Tests are pending to confirm the cause of death.
Dorothy Burk Mahl, who had taught at John G. Carlisle School, died Friday evening at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood. Mahl was a resident of Fort Wright.
The Northern Kentucky Independent Health District would confirm only that the death of a Kenton County woman Friday was believed due to West Nile. Officials would not release a name, citing privacy laws. Health department spokeswoman Emily Gresham said samples were sent to the Kentucky Public Health Lab in Frankfort, where more sophisticated tests can be performed.
"If confirmed (by the state), it would be the first West Nile death this year in Kentucky," Gresham said.
Burk said his sister was a "very nice person, very friendly and smart." After his wife's death, Mahl helped him raise his daughter, Carolyn Cruse of Villa Hills.
"Dorothy always was willing to take Carolyn - take her shopping or do anything with her. She was a second mother to my daughter."
Born in Covington to William and Alma Burk, Mahl graduated from Eastern State Teachers College in Richmond. She taught fifth grade at John G. Carlisle School until about 20 years ago.
She liked to garden and to play bridge. She was a member of the PTA, the 620 Club, the Eastern Kentucky Alumni Association, the Retired Teachers Association, Delta Kappa Gamma and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.
She was also a member and former secretary of the Covington Art Club.
She became ill about 10 days ago.
Mrs. Mahl's husband, Karl Mahl, died in 1985. In addition to her brother, survivors include a son, Karl Mahl Jr. of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; a sister, Betty O'Toole of Crestview Hills; and one grandchild.
Visitation is 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. today followed by the funeral at Swindler & Currin Funeral Home, 214 West Southern Ave. in Latonia. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
Memorials can be made to the American Heart Association, 333 Guthrie Street, Suite 207, Louisville, KY 40202.
Through last week, Health department spokesman Gresham said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 55 deaths this year across the nation from West Nile virus.
People who get the virus, primarily transmitted to humans through mosquitoes, usually show flu-like symptoms such as aches, pains and fever, Gresham said.
Although the mosquito population dies off as it gets colder, many cases still occur in late August and September, Gresham said.
The health department also monitors West Nile cases in birds and horses. There have not been any cases in either animal reported in the Boone, Campbell, Kenton or Grant county areas, but six horses and two birds tested positive in other parts of the state, according to the department.
If confirmed, Friday's death would be the fourth human case of West Nile in Kentucky this year. In two of the cases, a Kenton County man and a Grant County woman were hospitalized and are recovering, Gresham said. The other case was in the Louisville area.
Rebecca Goodman contributed to this report. E-mail aremke@enquirer.com
Eugene Lee, MN-Victim
Posted: 10/11/05
West Nile claims Rogers man
Riverview Community Bank
by Susan M.A. Larson
Staff writer
Eugene Lee, 76, Rogers, is believed to be Hennepin County’s first death due to West Nile virus (WNV). Lee died Sept. 29 at North Memorial Medical Center, Robbinsdale.
According to Doug Schultz, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) spokesperson, it is not the MDH’s policy to release names, but he confirmed that a 76-year-old male from Hennepin County died from West Nile and “as far as we can tell from our records, we have had no other deaths in Hennepin County since we’ve had West Nile in the state in 2002.” Lee’s is the second West Nile death in Minnesota in 2005.
Jim Stark, public affairs coordinator for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District (MMCD), said his department was notified by the Minne-sota Depart-ment of Health that a Rogers resident had been diagnosed with West Nile.The MMCD then looked for immature and adult mosquitos in Rogers.
“There needs to be a certain threshold of mosquitos (to spray for them) and the mosquito population (in Rogers) didn’t warrant any treatment,” said Stark.
Lee’s daughters, Wendy Lee and Jane Erickson, said their father didn’t really show any symptoms of illness. In mid-September, said Wendy, “He said he didn’t feel right. He went to an urgent care, but they didn’t find anything.”
On Sept. 21 he was to have left on a trip to Niagara Falls. But instead, Lee ended up in the hospital. Later that evening, he developed seizures, became unresponsive and had a fever of 104 that couldn’t be controlled. On Sept. 27, according to his daughters, they were told their father had West Nile, which turned into encephalitis. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, a small percentage of people infected with the West Nile virus, especially the elderly, develop encephalitis (inflammation of the brain); approximately 10 percent of these encephalitis cases are fatal. However, most people infected with the West Nile virus have either no symptoms or a very mild illness. Lee also had diabetes and a heart condition.
The typical incubation period for West Nile, the MDH reports, is two–six days, although it can be as long as 15 days. Most people infected with West Nile virus will be asymptomatic or experience a flu-like illness; 20 percent of those bitten by an infected mosquito will develop the symptoms of West Nile fever and one out of 150 people bitten by an infected mosquito will develop the more severe form of West Nile, West Nile encephalitis.
Erickson and Lee stress that they don’t want to be alarmists, but “it happens and people need to be able to take precautions,” said Erickson.
“But we don’t want them hiding in their houses,” Lee added.
“We don’t want people to hibernate, just take precautions,” said Erickson.
West Nile virus (WNV) is maintained in a transmission cycle involving one or more species of mosquitoes and birds.The MDH recommends personal protection measures such as use of mosquito repellents, avoiding outdoor exposures at dusk and dawn (peak feeding time for many mosquitoes), and wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants to reduce the risk of West Nile. Removal of water-holding containers (mosquito breeding sites) from residential areas will reduce mosquito numbers.
Erickson and Lee remember their father as loving travel, being outdoors and genealogy.
West Nile claims Rogers man
Riverview Community Bank
by Susan M.A. Larson
Staff writer
Eugene Lee, 76, Rogers, is believed to be Hennepin County’s first death due to West Nile virus (WNV). Lee died Sept. 29 at North Memorial Medical Center, Robbinsdale.
According to Doug Schultz, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) spokesperson, it is not the MDH’s policy to release names, but he confirmed that a 76-year-old male from Hennepin County died from West Nile and “as far as we can tell from our records, we have had no other deaths in Hennepin County since we’ve had West Nile in the state in 2002.” Lee’s is the second West Nile death in Minnesota in 2005.
Jim Stark, public affairs coordinator for the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District (MMCD), said his department was notified by the Minne-sota Depart-ment of Health that a Rogers resident had been diagnosed with West Nile.The MMCD then looked for immature and adult mosquitos in Rogers.
“There needs to be a certain threshold of mosquitos (to spray for them) and the mosquito population (in Rogers) didn’t warrant any treatment,” said Stark.
Lee’s daughters, Wendy Lee and Jane Erickson, said their father didn’t really show any symptoms of illness. In mid-September, said Wendy, “He said he didn’t feel right. He went to an urgent care, but they didn’t find anything.”
On Sept. 21 he was to have left on a trip to Niagara Falls. But instead, Lee ended up in the hospital. Later that evening, he developed seizures, became unresponsive and had a fever of 104 that couldn’t be controlled. On Sept. 27, according to his daughters, they were told their father had West Nile, which turned into encephalitis. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, a small percentage of people infected with the West Nile virus, especially the elderly, develop encephalitis (inflammation of the brain); approximately 10 percent of these encephalitis cases are fatal. However, most people infected with the West Nile virus have either no symptoms or a very mild illness. Lee also had diabetes and a heart condition.
The typical incubation period for West Nile, the MDH reports, is two–six days, although it can be as long as 15 days. Most people infected with West Nile virus will be asymptomatic or experience a flu-like illness; 20 percent of those bitten by an infected mosquito will develop the symptoms of West Nile fever and one out of 150 people bitten by an infected mosquito will develop the more severe form of West Nile, West Nile encephalitis.
Erickson and Lee stress that they don’t want to be alarmists, but “it happens and people need to be able to take precautions,” said Erickson.
“But we don’t want them hiding in their houses,” Lee added.
“We don’t want people to hibernate, just take precautions,” said Erickson.
West Nile virus (WNV) is maintained in a transmission cycle involving one or more species of mosquitoes and birds.The MDH recommends personal protection measures such as use of mosquito repellents, avoiding outdoor exposures at dusk and dawn (peak feeding time for many mosquitoes), and wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants to reduce the risk of West Nile. Removal of water-holding containers (mosquito breeding sites) from residential areas will reduce mosquito numbers.
Erickson and Lee remember their father as loving travel, being outdoors and genealogy.
Mamie Carda, SD-Victim
Family copes with West Nile's toll
Associated Press--Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005
TABOR, S.D. - The family of a woman who died of West Nile wants to make sure others are aware that the deadly disease is still around.
Mamie Carda, 90, or Tabor, died last month and was the state's second West Nile fatality in 2005.
And her family doesn't want to see it happen to anyone else.
"The whole family is concerned about others," said Jennifer Carda, 28, wife of grandson Brad Carda, 29. "People need to be aware of West Nile."
The Cardas hope to save at least one life by telling Mamie's story, Jennifer said.
Despite her age, Mamie didn't fit the profile of the West Nile victim, Jennifer said.
"Grandma wasn't outside much," she said. "She went outside to get her mail or put her garbage out, but she didn't go many places."
Mamie lived at home and was very independent, and very healthy, Jennifer said.
"Other than this (West Nile), she was really healthy. There is a sense of frustration because she was doing so well."
But just a couple of minutes outdoors can be enough for a West Nile mosquito to bite, said April Borders, an Extension educator in Yankton County.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't go outside anymore, but you have to take precautions," she said. "You need to wear long clothing and use protectants or repellents. Our theory is that this is the last chance (for the insects) to feed before they have to hibernate for the winter."
Borders also said that mosquitoes try to get inside when the weather gets cold, so screens and windows should be checked for holes.
Mamie's case illustrates the elderly's susceptibility to West Nile, said Borders.
"At about 50 years old, you see the number of cases go up, and the cases spike for those over 70 years old," Borders said. "The older persons' immune systems are weaker, and they catch so many more things."
West Nile numbers spike in September and the current warm weather has prolonged the West Nile season, she said. The state currently has 278 reported West Nile cases and two deaths.
This time last year, South Dakota had 44 human cases and on death, much smaller than 2003's reported 1,035 cases and eight deaths.
Mamie's death has made the entirely family more vigilant about the deadly disease, Jennifer said. They're more protective of themselves and their 4-year-old son.
"West Nile can hit any time, and we have bug spray nearby for ourselves and our little boy," she said. "Our family wants to make people aware the mosquito is still out there. They need to take care of themselves."
Associated Press--Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005
TABOR, S.D. - The family of a woman who died of West Nile wants to make sure others are aware that the deadly disease is still around.
Mamie Carda, 90, or Tabor, died last month and was the state's second West Nile fatality in 2005.
And her family doesn't want to see it happen to anyone else.
"The whole family is concerned about others," said Jennifer Carda, 28, wife of grandson Brad Carda, 29. "People need to be aware of West Nile."
The Cardas hope to save at least one life by telling Mamie's story, Jennifer said.
Despite her age, Mamie didn't fit the profile of the West Nile victim, Jennifer said.
"Grandma wasn't outside much," she said. "She went outside to get her mail or put her garbage out, but she didn't go many places."
Mamie lived at home and was very independent, and very healthy, Jennifer said.
"Other than this (West Nile), she was really healthy. There is a sense of frustration because she was doing so well."
But just a couple of minutes outdoors can be enough for a West Nile mosquito to bite, said April Borders, an Extension educator in Yankton County.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't go outside anymore, but you have to take precautions," she said. "You need to wear long clothing and use protectants or repellents. Our theory is that this is the last chance (for the insects) to feed before they have to hibernate for the winter."
Borders also said that mosquitoes try to get inside when the weather gets cold, so screens and windows should be checked for holes.
Mamie's case illustrates the elderly's susceptibility to West Nile, said Borders.
"At about 50 years old, you see the number of cases go up, and the cases spike for those over 70 years old," Borders said. "The older persons' immune systems are weaker, and they catch so many more things."
West Nile numbers spike in September and the current warm weather has prolonged the West Nile season, she said. The state currently has 278 reported West Nile cases and two deaths.
This time last year, South Dakota had 44 human cases and on death, much smaller than 2003's reported 1,035 cases and eight deaths.
Mamie's death has made the entirely family more vigilant about the deadly disease, Jennifer said. They're more protective of themselves and their 4-year-old son.
"West Nile can hit any time, and we have bug spray nearby for ourselves and our little boy," she said. "Our family wants to make people aware the mosquito is still out there. They need to take care of themselves."
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Dan Cullinan, AZ-Victim
Fountain Hills man dies of West Nile virus
Jessica Coomes
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 13, 2005 12:00 AM
FOUNTAIN HILLS - A 74-year-old man from Fountain Hills died after battling the West Nile virus for three weeks.
Dan Cullinan, a retired teacher and part-time bartender, is the third person in Maricopa County this year to die because of complications from the virus, a county health official confirmed Wednesday.
"It got worse and worse," said Julie Cullinan, his wife of 43 years. "It was absolutely horrific. I've been through so much stuff, and I've never seen anything like this."
advertisement
Cullinan went to the hospital with flulike symptoms, including nausea, high temperature and aches. Less than a week later, Cullinan was unconscious, paralyzed and on life support, his wife said. He died Monday evening.
Mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus were found in northeast Fountain Hills earlier this month, and the county has fogged in the area from McDowell Mountain Road to Grande Boulevard and from Saguaro Boulevard to San Carlos Drive.
Although the number of fatalities from West Nile is down from last year, county health officials encourage people to remove standing water from outside plants and buckets and to report stagnant water to the county.
The county also advises repairing windows with holes as well as wearing mosquito repellant and long clothes while outside, especially before dawn and after dusk.
The other West Nile casualties in the county this year were a Northwest Valley man in his 60s and a central Phoenix woman in her 80s.
Health officials confirmed 56 human West Nile cases in Maricopa County this year. Last year, 355 people in the county had the virus, 15 of whom died.
It's unknown where Cullinan contracted the mosquito-borne virus, said Emily Poland, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
Peter Moen, CAN-Victim
Widow of West Nile victim urges vigilance
Oct 13 2005 09:16 AM CDT
CBC News
The widow of a Regina man who died of the West Nile virus says people need to take the disease more seriously.
Eighty-three-year-old Peter Moen died in hospital last month.
His wife says the illness came as a shock, because her husband was always active and healthy.
"Every summer at the cottage at Regina Beach, we'd have a few leaks. Up he'd be on the top of the roof, carrying the tar pail. Right up till a couple weeks before he took ill," she said.
When he got sick, the doctor said it was probably just the flu, but Moen knew her husband had been bitten by mosquitoes at their cabin.
"It was very rapid. Very, very rapid. One day he was absolutely, perfectly healthy himself. The next morning, he went for coffee, to the Golden Mile, which he did every day to meet the boys," she said. "He came home, he was flat on his back."
Within weeks, Peter Moen was dead – along with another elderly Regina man who also had the virus.
Moen's wife says she wants people to do more to protect themselves.
Saskatchewan had 60 West Nile cases this year, up from five in 2004, but far fewer than the 947 cases recorded in 2003.
According to Ross Findlater, the province's chief medical health officer, the biggest factor is actually the weather.
"There was some cool weather from the beginning of August to the middle of August, which was quite important in keeping the mosquitoes down. And then it did warm up later on, but by then many mosquitoes were already getting ready for the winter anyway."
Findlater says wearing bug spray is a good practice, but local mosquito control programs are even more important.
Those programs remain a big challenge for rural areas and resorts, he said.
Oct 13 2005 09:16 AM CDT
CBC News
The widow of a Regina man who died of the West Nile virus says people need to take the disease more seriously.
Eighty-three-year-old Peter Moen died in hospital last month.
His wife says the illness came as a shock, because her husband was always active and healthy.
"Every summer at the cottage at Regina Beach, we'd have a few leaks. Up he'd be on the top of the roof, carrying the tar pail. Right up till a couple weeks before he took ill," she said.
When he got sick, the doctor said it was probably just the flu, but Moen knew her husband had been bitten by mosquitoes at their cabin.
"It was very rapid. Very, very rapid. One day he was absolutely, perfectly healthy himself. The next morning, he went for coffee, to the Golden Mile, which he did every day to meet the boys," she said. "He came home, he was flat on his back."
Within weeks, Peter Moen was dead – along with another elderly Regina man who also had the virus.
Moen's wife says she wants people to do more to protect themselves.
Saskatchewan had 60 West Nile cases this year, up from five in 2004, but far fewer than the 947 cases recorded in 2003.
According to Ross Findlater, the province's chief medical health officer, the biggest factor is actually the weather.
"There was some cool weather from the beginning of August to the middle of August, which was quite important in keeping the mosquitoes down. And then it did warm up later on, but by then many mosquitoes were already getting ready for the winter anyway."
Findlater says wearing bug spray is a good practice, but local mosquito control programs are even more important.
Those programs remain a big challenge for rural areas and resorts, he said.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Jessica Forst, Nevada
Douglas student diagnosed with West Nile Virus
by Sheila Gardner
Nevada Appeal News Service
October 7, 2005
GARDNERVILLE - At age 17, Jessica Forst should be having the time of her life.
As a Douglas High School senior, her plans this year included looking ahead to graduation with friends she's known since kindergarten.
Instead, Jessica lies curled up on a leather loveseat in her family's Chambers Field home.
Too weak to brush her shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair, Jessica can't walk to her bedroom unattended or take a shower on her own.
Food makes her nauseated and body aches are so intense she stopped sleeping in her bed, preferring to catnap on the couch.
Rather than celebrating senior class milestones or camping with her family, Jessica has spent the past few months battling a baffling series of illnesses including spinal meningitis.
On Tuesday, Jessica got an additional diagnosis that might put things in perspective.
She has West Nile virus, one of the three human cases in Douglas County.
"It was almost a relief," her father, Jim Forst, said Wednesday.
Jessica's problems began after she had her wisdom teeth extracted in July. She developed osteomyelitis that has required surgery.
"My mouth was just full of bacteria," she said.
The infection was accompanied by swelling and intense pain that doctors fought with antibiotics and painkillers that made her sick.
She lost her appetite and 11 pounds. A teaspoon of applesauce fills her up.
With the West Nile Virus diagnosis, Jessica and her family believe things are looking up.
"We suspect now that her immune system was overloaded," Jim Forst said.
Jessica said she has no clue where the disease-bearing mosquito came from.
"I never get bit by mosquitoes," she said. "Who could think this little mosquito could cause all this trouble?"
Her parents say doctors aren't sure whether to tie the bone infection to the West Nile virus, but the spinal meningitis is a definite symptom.
On Sept. 24 Jessica had a stiff neck and a raging headache.
The next day, she was in agony.
"It was like this big lightbulb went off," Susie Forst said. "I told Jessi to look on the Internet under spinal meningitis and she had all the symptoms."
Once Jessica was officially diagnosed with spinal meningitis, she was quarantined and hospitalized for a week.
The West Nile Virus was diagnosed Tuesday.
"My doctor came out and said, 'You are the most unlucky person,' and told me what it was," Jessica said. "I just laughed at it. I couldn't believe I had it."
Jessica is under orders to rest and recover. There's not much else she can do.
"I'm not able to sleep at night," she said. "My muscles hurt even in my own bed. I leave the television on, and fall asleep on the couch."
Jessica goes to the infusion center at Carson Valley Medical Center every day where liquid and antibiotics are pumped into her frail system.
Every time her mom walks by, she tries to coax Jessica to eat a cracker or take a sip of water.
"Being a nurse is hard," she said. "I'm normally busy, but this is very time consuming."
But Susie Forst is not complaining.
Last year Jessica helped nurse her mother through breast cancer.
"She was my mom," Susie said. "She drove me everywhere and took care of me. Now it's my turn."
The Forsts said friends and neighbors have offered unflagging support.
The daughter of one of Susie Forst's co-workers at the Hairport set up a bank account to help with expenses associated with Jessica's treatment.
Some medical bills are covered by insurance and the Forsts are preparing to tackle the rest.
"We've had unbelievable support," Susie Forst said. "Somebody takes her to the infusion center if I can't. People are bringing over meals.
"If it wasn't for everybody's prayers and our faith in God, we couldn't make it through," she said. "Even the nurses at the hospital prayed for us."
Jim Forst said he and his wife have been grateful for the quality of care Jessica has received.
"I've watched the doctors and nurses. Day in and day out, they have to do all these things and they treat Jessica like she's their only patient," he said.
Some days, Jessica's fragile condition gives way to tears of frustration.
"She wants to know, 'Why me, Mom?'" Susie Forst said. "I don't know why she's had to suffer so much."
Jessica tries to keep up with her friends by e-mail and text messaging, but some days even that is too much effort.
"When they come over to visit, I usually fall asleep," she said.
Jessica said her illness has led her to think about becoming a nurse.
"I've been treated so awesome," she said. "It's just because of the good care and how people treated me. I like to help people out."
Jessica isn't thinking too much about the schoolwork that lies ahead. She said it's difficult even to try to read, but she still has concerns.
"I want to graduate with my class," she said. "I can't wait to go back to school and see all my friends."
- Contact reporter Sheila Gardner at sgardner@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 214.
by Sheila Gardner
Nevada Appeal News Service
October 7, 2005
GARDNERVILLE - At age 17, Jessica Forst should be having the time of her life.
As a Douglas High School senior, her plans this year included looking ahead to graduation with friends she's known since kindergarten.
Instead, Jessica lies curled up on a leather loveseat in her family's Chambers Field home.
Too weak to brush her shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair, Jessica can't walk to her bedroom unattended or take a shower on her own.
Food makes her nauseated and body aches are so intense she stopped sleeping in her bed, preferring to catnap on the couch.
Rather than celebrating senior class milestones or camping with her family, Jessica has spent the past few months battling a baffling series of illnesses including spinal meningitis.
On Tuesday, Jessica got an additional diagnosis that might put things in perspective.
She has West Nile virus, one of the three human cases in Douglas County.
"It was almost a relief," her father, Jim Forst, said Wednesday.
Jessica's problems began after she had her wisdom teeth extracted in July. She developed osteomyelitis that has required surgery.
"My mouth was just full of bacteria," she said.
The infection was accompanied by swelling and intense pain that doctors fought with antibiotics and painkillers that made her sick.
She lost her appetite and 11 pounds. A teaspoon of applesauce fills her up.
With the West Nile Virus diagnosis, Jessica and her family believe things are looking up.
"We suspect now that her immune system was overloaded," Jim Forst said.
Jessica said she has no clue where the disease-bearing mosquito came from.
"I never get bit by mosquitoes," she said. "Who could think this little mosquito could cause all this trouble?"
Her parents say doctors aren't sure whether to tie the bone infection to the West Nile virus, but the spinal meningitis is a definite symptom.
On Sept. 24 Jessica had a stiff neck and a raging headache.
The next day, she was in agony.
"It was like this big lightbulb went off," Susie Forst said. "I told Jessi to look on the Internet under spinal meningitis and she had all the symptoms."
Once Jessica was officially diagnosed with spinal meningitis, she was quarantined and hospitalized for a week.
The West Nile Virus was diagnosed Tuesday.
"My doctor came out and said, 'You are the most unlucky person,' and told me what it was," Jessica said. "I just laughed at it. I couldn't believe I had it."
Jessica is under orders to rest and recover. There's not much else she can do.
"I'm not able to sleep at night," she said. "My muscles hurt even in my own bed. I leave the television on, and fall asleep on the couch."
Jessica goes to the infusion center at Carson Valley Medical Center every day where liquid and antibiotics are pumped into her frail system.
Every time her mom walks by, she tries to coax Jessica to eat a cracker or take a sip of water.
"Being a nurse is hard," she said. "I'm normally busy, but this is very time consuming."
But Susie Forst is not complaining.
Last year Jessica helped nurse her mother through breast cancer.
"She was my mom," Susie said. "She drove me everywhere and took care of me. Now it's my turn."
The Forsts said friends and neighbors have offered unflagging support.
The daughter of one of Susie Forst's co-workers at the Hairport set up a bank account to help with expenses associated with Jessica's treatment.
Some medical bills are covered by insurance and the Forsts are preparing to tackle the rest.
"We've had unbelievable support," Susie Forst said. "Somebody takes her to the infusion center if I can't. People are bringing over meals.
"If it wasn't for everybody's prayers and our faith in God, we couldn't make it through," she said. "Even the nurses at the hospital prayed for us."
Jim Forst said he and his wife have been grateful for the quality of care Jessica has received.
"I've watched the doctors and nurses. Day in and day out, they have to do all these things and they treat Jessica like she's their only patient," he said.
Some days, Jessica's fragile condition gives way to tears of frustration.
"She wants to know, 'Why me, Mom?'" Susie Forst said. "I don't know why she's had to suffer so much."
Jessica tries to keep up with her friends by e-mail and text messaging, but some days even that is too much effort.
"When they come over to visit, I usually fall asleep," she said.
Jessica said her illness has led her to think about becoming a nurse.
"I've been treated so awesome," she said. "It's just because of the good care and how people treated me. I like to help people out."
Jessica isn't thinking too much about the schoolwork that lies ahead. She said it's difficult even to try to read, but she still has concerns.
"I want to graduate with my class," she said. "I can't wait to go back to school and see all my friends."
- Contact reporter Sheila Gardner at sgardner@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 214.
Charlie Ray Hatten-LA, Victim---Clarice Hatten, wife
Widow: Grayson man died of West Nile
10/7/2005, 10:10 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
GRAYSON, La. (AP) — The West Nile virus killed an 81-year-old Grayson man, his wife said.
Clarice Hatten said new autopsy results show that Charlie Ray Hatten's death on Sept. 10 was caused by the virus. The state does not confirm or deny individual cases, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist.
As of Sept. 23, the state listed six deaths statewide from the virus. Ratard has said that because some families do not want to be identified, he will not release list parishes where the virus killed people until the season is over.
At the last report, 99 people had been diagnosed with the virus in Louisiana — 54 with neuroinvasive infections of the brain or spinal fluid, 27 with less serious West Nile fever and 18 without any symptoms, infections which may be identified if someone gives blood.
___
Information from: The News-Star, http://www.thenewsstar.com
10/7/2005, 10:10 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
GRAYSON, La. (AP) — The West Nile virus killed an 81-year-old Grayson man, his wife said.
Clarice Hatten said new autopsy results show that Charlie Ray Hatten's death on Sept. 10 was caused by the virus. The state does not confirm or deny individual cases, said Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist.
As of Sept. 23, the state listed six deaths statewide from the virus. Ratard has said that because some families do not want to be identified, he will not release list parishes where the virus killed people until the season is over.
At the last report, 99 people had been diagnosed with the virus in Louisiana — 54 with neuroinvasive infections of the brain or spinal fluid, 27 with less serious West Nile fever and 18 without any symptoms, infections which may be identified if someone gives blood.
___
Information from: The News-Star, http://www.thenewsstar.com
Monday, October 03, 2005
Katherine Pistone, IL
Patients confront a lonely battle
Drug research lags on West Nile virus
By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 2, 2005
When West Nile disease left her mother comatose and paralyzed in a hospital bed last fall, doctors could offer Patty Fritsch no sure remedy.
Her best option, they said, was a drug called Alferon N. Scientists are testing it as a treatment for West Nile, but so far, it has been approved only to treat the virus causing genital warts.
Fritsch felt she had no choice but to try it.
"When you're at life and death, you want the pill," she said. "The question isn't, `Will I get it?' It's, `How soon can you get it here?'"
More than 15,000 people have been infected by the West Nile virus since it reached the United States six years ago; almost 400 have died. Yet researchers say a vaccine won't be ready for at least two years. Work on treatments is lagging even farther behind, as scientists put a priority on prevention.
In the meantime, families are left to gamble on treatment and hope for recovery.
"The necessary work has been put in," said Vishnu Chundi, the infectious disease specialist who treated Fritsch's mother, Katherine Pistone, last year. "But it's moving at a snail's pace."
The mosquito-borne disease is nowhere near the threat it was in Illinois during the summer of 2002, when 884 people were infected and 67 died, according to the state Department of Public Health. But there has been a resurgence this summer, with new cases announced almost daily and four people dead, according to the state. Illinois has had the third-highest number of West Nile infections in the country this year (188), trailing California (801) and South Dakota (278).
Those most susceptible to West Nile are older than 50 and have suppressed immune systems.
Against the odds, Pistone, 64, appears to be beating the disease.
Days after getting 10 treatments of Alferon N, she opened her eyes. For months there was no movement, no speech and no recognition of anyone in her deep brown eyes.
Now, Pistone is conscious and gets around a North Shore rehabilitation facility in a wheelchair. She can lift her arms a few inches and do things that were unimaginable just a few months ago: brush her hair, feed herself, scratch an itch.
Fritsch, 38, doesn't know for sure if Alferon N caused Pistone's improvement, but she's on the Internet most days hunting for another new or experimental treatment. She'll consider anything that could help her mother continue to beat West Nile.
"If there's something that can speed up the process, we'll do it," Fritsch said.
Vaccine research began at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1999, shortly after the first U.S. cases were seen in New York, said Jeff Chang, an infectious disease research microbiologist at the CDC.
Within six months, a West Nile vaccine for animals was created based on an encephalitis vaccine, he said. There are vaccines for mice, monkeys and horses, among others.
But approving that vaccine for humans has been a slow process even though a modified version is in trials sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
Chang said he is certain his vaccine will protect humans, but the trials are necessary.
"Proof the vaccine works is one side of the coin," he said. "The other side, more important, is safety."
At least two other trials for West Nile vaccines are ongoing, said Pat Repik, who leads studies on emerging viral diseases for NIAID. Some vaccines will wind up better suited for those most at risk. More robust vaccines will be better suited for younger people, she said.
However, even as interest surges from patients and health departments, industry fears simmer about whether there is actually a market for a West Nile vaccine, she said. Labs raced to find a Lyme disease vaccine when the disease dominated headlines but stopped making it when no one bought it, she said.
"Everyone is clamoring for the vaccine, but we have to see if people will actually be taking it," Repik said.
Lagging far behind and given less priority in scientific circles, is the search for West Nile treatment. The thought, said Walla Dempsey, who is leading an NIAID clinical trial, is that a West Nile vaccine will supplant the need for treatment. However, treatment still could be necessary for people with immune systems too fragile for a vaccine, she said.
At least three public and private trials are ongoing for West Nile treatments, but NIAID's trial is slow going.
The study targets 100 patients, but after three years, it is stuck at about 40 people nationwide, Dempsey said. The biggest problem has been finding patients within seven days of showing symptoms, she said.
While research continues, people such as Pistone and their families are left to fend for themselves.
Although the drug Pistone used is not approved as a West Nile treatment, Chundi said, he had no problem getting it from manufacturer, Hemispherx Biopharma, because it is FDA approved. He fed Pistone 10 doses over nine days, which is how it is being used in West Nile trials at New York Hospital Queens.
No one knows if it made a difference.
"We as doctors claim to know about a lot, but in this disease we don't really know where the outcomes are going to be," Chundi said.
Nevertheless, Pistone is getting better. She spends several hours per day in physical therapy, and her family visits daily.
She laments the horror of paralysis but maintains a bright outlook, and she even smiles as she wonders how a mosquito could so change her life.
"It upsets you that something that little can do so much damage," she said.
With no treatment or vaccine available, Chundi said, the most effective response to West Nile is simple.
"The best we can do right now is prevention," he said. "And prevention is not to be bitten by a mosquito."
----------
jbnoel@tribune.com
Drug research lags on West Nile virus
By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 2, 2005
When West Nile disease left her mother comatose and paralyzed in a hospital bed last fall, doctors could offer Patty Fritsch no sure remedy.
Her best option, they said, was a drug called Alferon N. Scientists are testing it as a treatment for West Nile, but so far, it has been approved only to treat the virus causing genital warts.
Fritsch felt she had no choice but to try it.
"When you're at life and death, you want the pill," she said. "The question isn't, `Will I get it?' It's, `How soon can you get it here?'"
More than 15,000 people have been infected by the West Nile virus since it reached the United States six years ago; almost 400 have died. Yet researchers say a vaccine won't be ready for at least two years. Work on treatments is lagging even farther behind, as scientists put a priority on prevention.
In the meantime, families are left to gamble on treatment and hope for recovery.
"The necessary work has been put in," said Vishnu Chundi, the infectious disease specialist who treated Fritsch's mother, Katherine Pistone, last year. "But it's moving at a snail's pace."
The mosquito-borne disease is nowhere near the threat it was in Illinois during the summer of 2002, when 884 people were infected and 67 died, according to the state Department of Public Health. But there has been a resurgence this summer, with new cases announced almost daily and four people dead, according to the state. Illinois has had the third-highest number of West Nile infections in the country this year (188), trailing California (801) and South Dakota (278).
Those most susceptible to West Nile are older than 50 and have suppressed immune systems.
Against the odds, Pistone, 64, appears to be beating the disease.
Days after getting 10 treatments of Alferon N, she opened her eyes. For months there was no movement, no speech and no recognition of anyone in her deep brown eyes.
Now, Pistone is conscious and gets around a North Shore rehabilitation facility in a wheelchair. She can lift her arms a few inches and do things that were unimaginable just a few months ago: brush her hair, feed herself, scratch an itch.
Fritsch, 38, doesn't know for sure if Alferon N caused Pistone's improvement, but she's on the Internet most days hunting for another new or experimental treatment. She'll consider anything that could help her mother continue to beat West Nile.
"If there's something that can speed up the process, we'll do it," Fritsch said.
Vaccine research began at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1999, shortly after the first U.S. cases were seen in New York, said Jeff Chang, an infectious disease research microbiologist at the CDC.
Within six months, a West Nile vaccine for animals was created based on an encephalitis vaccine, he said. There are vaccines for mice, monkeys and horses, among others.
But approving that vaccine for humans has been a slow process even though a modified version is in trials sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
Chang said he is certain his vaccine will protect humans, but the trials are necessary.
"Proof the vaccine works is one side of the coin," he said. "The other side, more important, is safety."
At least two other trials for West Nile vaccines are ongoing, said Pat Repik, who leads studies on emerging viral diseases for NIAID. Some vaccines will wind up better suited for those most at risk. More robust vaccines will be better suited for younger people, she said.
However, even as interest surges from patients and health departments, industry fears simmer about whether there is actually a market for a West Nile vaccine, she said. Labs raced to find a Lyme disease vaccine when the disease dominated headlines but stopped making it when no one bought it, she said.
"Everyone is clamoring for the vaccine, but we have to see if people will actually be taking it," Repik said.
Lagging far behind and given less priority in scientific circles, is the search for West Nile treatment. The thought, said Walla Dempsey, who is leading an NIAID clinical trial, is that a West Nile vaccine will supplant the need for treatment. However, treatment still could be necessary for people with immune systems too fragile for a vaccine, she said.
At least three public and private trials are ongoing for West Nile treatments, but NIAID's trial is slow going.
The study targets 100 patients, but after three years, it is stuck at about 40 people nationwide, Dempsey said. The biggest problem has been finding patients within seven days of showing symptoms, she said.
While research continues, people such as Pistone and their families are left to fend for themselves.
Although the drug Pistone used is not approved as a West Nile treatment, Chundi said, he had no problem getting it from manufacturer, Hemispherx Biopharma, because it is FDA approved. He fed Pistone 10 doses over nine days, which is how it is being used in West Nile trials at New York Hospital Queens.
No one knows if it made a difference.
"We as doctors claim to know about a lot, but in this disease we don't really know where the outcomes are going to be," Chundi said.
Nevertheless, Pistone is getting better. She spends several hours per day in physical therapy, and her family visits daily.
She laments the horror of paralysis but maintains a bright outlook, and she even smiles as she wonders how a mosquito could so change her life.
"It upsets you that something that little can do so much damage," she said.
With no treatment or vaccine available, Chundi said, the most effective response to West Nile is simple.
"The best we can do right now is prevention," he said. "And prevention is not to be bitten by a mosquito."
----------
jbnoel@tribune.com
Ron Orndoff, CA
West Nile sickness wallops veteran
Fresno man was unaware of the severity of the virus.
By Cyndee Fontana / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Sunday, October 2, 2005, 9:51 AM)
Ron Orndoff hadn't missed a day of work in years and wasn't about to surrender that streak to a pair of wobbly legs.
Orndoff, 60, isn't the type of guy to crawl into bed for a cold or the flu. So when his 82-year-old mother suggested he call in sick on Aug. 14, Orndoff quickly dismissed the idea.
Instead, just as he did every other workday, Orndoff walked into the garage from their west-central Fresno home about 20 minutes before midnight. He headed toward their Toyota Camry and an eight-hour shift as night manager at the Quality Inn on Ashlan Avenue.
This time, the routine exit was followed by a loud thump.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Orndoff collapsed and didn't have the strength to drag himself to his feet. But as he crawled back into the house to call his boss, Orndoff was entering a harrowing medical drama.
Somehow — though he's not the outdoorsy type — Orndoff had been bitten by a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus. For the past six weeks, he has lived at Veterans Affairs Central California Health Care System hospital in Fresno while struggling to fight off high fever, partial paralysis, tremors and other symptoms related to the virus.
It was the hospital's first case of West Nile.
Orndoff developed meningitis and myelitis, an infection of the spinal cord, and his hands shook so badly that he couldn't lift a cup to his lips. Such severe symptoms are rare in most victims of West Nile, which attacks the central nervous system.
The majority of those infected develop no outward signs and only about one in five suffer flulike symptoms. Orndoff falls into the small category of people — less than 1% — who become seriously ill. People older than 50 and those with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk.
Neither Orndoff nor his family realized there was such a debilitating middle ground with the virus, which mainly makes headlines when it kills.
"Anybody I told about this, they had no idea that there's this serious effect," says Maureen Abston, Orndoff's sister. "We thought either you get sick [briefly] and recover, or you die."
Orndoff now is working to regain his health. His hands have stopped shaking and the high fevers have passed. He estimates that he's lost about 30 pounds.
He has sensation in his legs but limited ability to move them. Daily sessions of physical therapy are helping build the strength he needs to move himself in and out of a wheelchair.
Doctors can't predict whether he will recover full use of his legs. Orndoff says emphatically: "My goal is to walk."
While Orndoff only now is understanding the severity of his ordeal, his mother and sister believe he was twice close to death. They say he was confused at times — likely from the fever — and doesn't remember the worst days.
Orndoff, whose genial nature masks a stubborn streak, barely recalls an insect bite that bothered him in late July. Because he spends little time outside — his attempt to grow tomatoes lasted all of a day — Orndoff doesn't know where he met up with a mosquito.
"If you think of anyone who wouldn't be bit by a mosquito, it would be him," Abston adds.
In early August, according to his mother, Orndoff seemed to be suffering from the flu. But he'd managed to stay on his feet until Aug. 14, when he collapsed just outside the home he shares with his mother, Opal.
Orndoff had moved from Los Angeles back to Fresno in the early 1990s to help his mom. The roles were reversed when she found him in the garage that night.
Orndoff, who spent several years in the Army and once traveled the Midwest as an actor, knew he needed to see a doctor. But he decided to wait until morning before heading to the VA hospital, crawling back to his bedroom to sleep through the night.
The next morning, his mother drove the Camry over the curb and onto the lawn to shorten the walk for her weakened son.
"He crawled to the car," she says, "but he didn't have the strength to get in."
Opal Orndoff called paramedics, who ultimately transferred her son into the car. She drove to the hospital.
After a few hours, she says, doctors told her "we don't think he had a stroke but we don't know what it is."
Orndoff promised to call the next morning, and she finally left for the night. When he didn't call, she went back to the hospital and found "a room full of doctors" and a very sick son.
According to Dr. William Cahill, the chief of staff, doctors immediately suspected West Nile. He and other doctors have seen cases on the East Coast.
The virus first appeared there in 1999 and has since spread across the country. It can be transmitted to people or animals from mosquitoes that feed on infected birds.
In California this year, 16 people have died from West Nile-related illness. Six of the deaths occurred in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties.
There is no specific therapy for the virus; doctors treat the symptoms that develop. In Orndoff's case, symptoms included a 103-degree fever and muscle weakness.
When doctors first tested Orndoff for West Nile, the results were negative. It was too early to detect it; a second test a few days later diagnosed the virus.
Dr. Hewitt F. Ryan Jr., a neurologist who treated Orndoff, says the initial negative test didn't affect treatment because "the pattern of his illness was so striking."
Cahill says it was important to diagnose West Nile to "confirm that we were on the right track, that we weren't missing something else."
Abston immediately drove to Fresno from Yuba City when word of her brother's condition traveled the family grapevine.
When she first saw her brother, he seemed heavily drugged, mentally confused and had little feeling in his legs.
Abston and her mother visited twice a day to help feed him lunch and dinner because Orndoff's hands shook so badly.
A blood clot complicated his recovery, and he spent several weeks in the hospital's intensive-care unit.
Now, he has recovered enough to move to the extended-care unit and begin physical therapy.
Chuck Toland, a physical therapy intern at the hospital, says Orndoff has improved dramatically since his first session. When the two started, Toland was handling about 75% of Orndoff's body weight.
Now Orndoff carries most of the load. On Thursday, Orndoff was deep into his physical therapy session when Toland asked whether he wanted to do more.
"It's up to you," Orndoff answered.
"I'm here all day," Toland said.
"Well, I'm here all day, too," Orndoff countered with a grin.
He remains upbeat while talking about his health. Orndoff says he doesn't fear dying and figures he'll go when his time comes.
He also doesn't ponder just how a man who doesn't spend much time outside wound up with West Nile virus.
"I don't know why it happened to me," Orndoff says. "I guess it's gotta happen to somebody."
The reporter can be reached at cfontana@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6312.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
CDC West Nile Virus Info
Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link West Nile Virus Neuroinvasive Disease Incidence by State 2019 West Nil...
-
Teenage girl in Menifee dies after four-year battle with West Nile illness Download story podcast 10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, December 10... -
Tosa man battling West Nile dies Steiner was principal of Wauwatosa West High School By KAWANZA NEWSON knewson@journalsentinel.com Posted: N...
-
West Nile virus left former bodybuilder nearly paralyzed. Now he inspires as a trainer LOCAL West Nile virus left former bodybuilder nea...
