John C. Wood, MD

CITY'S FIRST VICTIM OF WEST NILE DIES:
VIRUS SEEN AS ROOT CAUSE OF DEATH OF WEST-SIDE MAN STRIKEN 9 MONTHS AGO
By Jonathan Bor and Frank D. Roylance, Sun Staff

Days after John C. Wood was taken to Sinai Hospital in a coma last
August and declared the city's first victim of West Nile virus, his
family assumed that he would also be a survivor.

Wood, a retired steel worker and amateur handyman who loved to sit on
his porch near Druid Hill Park and chat with neighbors, regained
consciousness and was discharged to a nursing home, where he charmed
the staff with his winning smile.

But Wood was never well enough to come home. The virus left him
brain-damaged, unable to speak in full sentences or swallow properly.
Much of the time, his breathing was so labored that he was hooked to
a mechanical ventilator.

Last Saturday, just two days after his sister visited him at the
Levindale nursing home and left reassured that he was looking well,
Wood developed a lung infection and died. He was 73.

Though the immediate cause of death was pneumonia, doctors are
confident that the root cause was West Nile virus, which had made him
prone to inhaling fluids into his lungs.

"It came as a shock to me," said his sister, Jean Williams of Jessup.
"He seemed to be more alert."

Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner, said
yesterday that Wood's death does not cause him to reassess what he
said last summer when the mosquito-borne illness sickened two city
residents and four other people in Maryland.

The illness, he said, is rare and most often strikes elderly people
with underlying conditions that hinder their ability to fight off
infection.

Wood had been stricken with cancer. And though he was in good health
when he was bitten by a mosquito in August, the cancer had impaired
his immune system and left him vulnerable.

"Clearly, we feel for the family," said Beilenson. "But this case
points out what we've been saying: Human consequences of West Nile
virus are uncommon."

The first U.S. cases occurred in 1999, when 62 people within a
75-mile radius of New York City were hospitalized with infections of
the central nervous system. Seven of the victims died.

Though a dead crow that carried the virus was identified in Maryland
that year, the first human cases here were not diagnosed until last
year. Of the six people who became ill, three -- including Wood --
eventually died.

A 70-year-old woman from the city's Jonestown neighborhood who died
in September succumbed to an underlying illness, but Beilenson said
yesterday that West Nile was clearly a contributing factor. The death
of a 63-year-old woman from East Point was attributed to causes
unrelated to West Nile.

Cy Lesser, chief of the state's Mosquito Control Section, said
yesterday that it is "quite likely" that Maryland will see more human
cases of West Nile this year.

But the season is off to a slow start. No infected birds, mosquitoes
or horses have turned up this spring, despite their discovery in 10
other Eastern states, including Virginia, and in the District of
Columbia.

Though there has been enough rain this spring to fill the mosquitoes'
breeding pools, Lesser said that recent cool weather has probably
slowed replication of the virus inside the mosquitoes and temporarily
reduced their ability to infect birds.

Though they can't be sure, Wood's family says he could have been
bitten while sitting on his porch on Gwynns Falls Parkway.

"He was a darn nice guy," said his brother, Leroy Wood of Baltimore.
"He loved to talk to everybody who went by."

Neighbors became concerned in August when they noticed that he hadn't
shown up on his porch for about three days. When a nephew dropped by
to see if anything was wrong, he found Wood lying unconscious on his
apartment floor.

Dr. Debra Wertheimer, his doctor at the Levindale Hebrew Geriatric
Center & Hospital, said it was difficult for the staff to get to know
Wood because the brain infection had left him unable to speak in more
than simple phrases.

Wood's funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the James A.
Morton & Sons Funeral Home, 1701 Laurens St.

Copyright (c) 2002, The Baltimore Sun