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.

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

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

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.

Wendy Payton, CA

West Nile victim fears more cases on horizon

A D V E R T I S E M E N T


Click to Enlarge

Dave Moller, davem@theunion.com
September 24, 2005

Comment Comments (1) Print Friendly Print Email Email

A Penn Valley woman who is the third person to get West Nile virus in Nevada County this year thinks there could easily be more cases.

Her opinion was backed up Friday by Dr. Brent Packer, the county health officer, who said the good news was that the season is waning for the mosquitoes that carry the virus. However, "I expect there are more (cases) in the pipeline," Packer said.

Wendy Payton, 53, said she was bit by several mosquitoes Aug. 27 while watching her son play soccer on a soggy field in Marysville next to a stream. Payton showed none of the classic symptoms the week after, which include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash and bodyaches that come on from three to 14 days after a bite.

But on Sept. 4, she woke up with body aches like those she has experienced during other illnesses. This time there was no other sickness involved until Sept. 8, when she woke up, "and my stomach felt weird."

Payton vomited while on her job as a teacher at Bear River High School and decided to visit the emergency room at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley. She suspected West Nile because of the mosquito bites but still had no fever, headache or rash.

She asked for a West Nile test at the hospital, but was told it was unnecessary because she lacked the symptoms.

"The very next day the rash popped up and got bad that weekend," she said. You can still see it on her arms and legs, although the California Department of Health Services said it usually shows up on the trunk of victims.

Payton said she called the hospital on Saturday, Sept. 10, and was told her symptoms did not call for a West Nile test. She called her doctor the next day and was transferred to a physician covering for him, who said no test was warranted.

On Sept. 12, she went to her doctor, who ordered a test for West Nile from the hospital. On Sept. 20, he called to tell her she was positive for West Nile.

"This week I felt a little fuzzy-headed and stiff but now I feel better," Payton said. "I bet there's people out there who feel achy that don't equate it with West Nile."

Payton said she was not upset with anyone at the hospital and had been treated with courtesy throughout. She said with only three human West Nile cases in the county this year, she could understand if physicians are not looking close for the virus, "but it was hard to get a test."

Dr. Joseph Britton is the medical director for the emergency room at SNMH and said flu-like symptoms from West Nile would not necessarily call for a test to find it.

"We don't often test for it because it doesn't change our treatment, because there is no medicine for it," Britton said. "We treat the symptoms and if they persist, we tell them to call their primary care doctor, who would order the test."


However, Britton said those with acute symptoms for West Nile like convulsions, vision loss, high fever, disorientation or tremors should not hesitate to come to the emergency room. Payton did not have those symptoms.

Packer said Payton's body aches, nausea and vomiting might have been enough for some physicians to order a West Nile test right away, while others would have made a different judgment.

"The nausea and vomiting goes with a million other things as well," Packer said. "Sometimes it's a judgment call and you're wrong." But Packer predicted area doctors might be quicker to order West Nile tests now after hearing about Payton's case.

ooo

To contact senior staff writer Dave Moller, e-mail davem@theunion.com or call 477-4237.

Don Adams, OH

W. Nile hits neighbors; city's response faulted
Monday, September 26, 2005
Harlan Spector
Plain Dealer Reporter

Cleveland's Old Brooklyn section has suffered its share of misery from the West Nile virus. Now two men on the same street have been sickened and people were asking Sunday where the city Health Department has been.

Greg Nawalaniec, a 45-year-old carpenter, has been ill in bed for weeks with West Nile virus, said his partner, Billy Singell. They live across from Don Adams, 72, who was recovering after being hospitalized six days with the illness.

Nawalaniec "was so bad yesterday that I had to call EMS, and they took him to Lutheran" Hospital, said Singell. "This is his 18th day. He's been in the hospital four times for hydration . . . It's the beast of all flus."

The neighborhood on the city's southern tier was hit hard in a West Nile outbreak in 2002. At least three residents died.

Singell and Tim Adams, who lives with his father, Don Adams, questioned why the city had not sprayed for mosquitoes. West Nile is transmitted by bites from infected mosquitoes.

Singell had contacted Councilwoman Emily Lipovan Holan. She harshly criticized city health officials Sunday. Holan said she asked the Health Department to spray pesticides after residents complained about an invasion of mosquitoes in recent weeks.

"People can't even sit on their porches," she said.

Holan said she received no response. The councilwoman was appointed four months ago to represent Ward 15, which includes Old Brooklyn. She said health officials should have done more public service announcements to warn residents, given the neighborhood's history of West Nile illness and the summer's dry, hot weather conditions, which nurture its spread.

"Residents of Ward 15, they're getting second-class treatment from the Department of Public Health," Holan said.

Health Director Matt Carroll said the city has not sprayed for mosquitoes for two years.

"It was taken out of the budget at budget-cutting time," Carroll said.

He also said the level of West Nile activity - taking into account positive tests in people and in trapped mosquitoes - would not justify spraying the neighborhood.

The city has recorded 13 or 14 human cases in other areas. Carroll said he knew of only one confirmed case in Old Brooklyn, presumably the case of Don Adams.

Councilwoman Holan said she considers the second case bona fide, even if confirmation has not been reported to the Health Department.

Singell said the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed his partner's virus Sept. 20.

Carroll, responding to criticism of the Health Department, said the city mailed notices about West Nile to residents in utility bills and also put the word out in news releases.

He said the city applies larvacide in watery areas where mosquitoes lay eggs.

Singell and Tim Adams said they thought mosquitoes were breeding in an algae-covered swimming pool a few doors down.

On Saturday they shared concerns with the owner, who on Sunday was draining the pool.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

hspector@plaind.com, 216-999-4543

Greg Nawalaniec, OH

W. Nile hits neighbors; city's response faulted
Monday, September 26, 2005
Harlan Spector
Plain Dealer Reporter

Cleveland's Old Brooklyn section has suffered its share of misery from the West Nile virus. Now two men on the same street have been sickened and people were asking Sunday where the city Health Department has been.

Greg Nawalaniec, a 45-year-old carpenter, has been ill in bed for weeks with West Nile virus, said his partner, Billy Singell. They live across from Don Adams, 72, who was recovering after being hospitalized six days with the illness.

Nawalaniec "was so bad yesterday that I had to call EMS, and they took him to Lutheran" Hospital, said Singell. "This is his 18th day. He's been in the hospital four times for hydration . . . It's the beast of all flus."

The neighborhood on the city's southern tier was hit hard in a West Nile outbreak in 2002. At least three residents died.

Singell and Tim Adams, who lives with his father, Don Adams, questioned why the city had not sprayed for mosquitoes. West Nile is transmitted by bites from infected mosquitoes.

Singell had contacted Councilwoman Emily Lipovan Holan. She harshly criticized city health officials Sunday. Holan said she asked the Health Department to spray pesticides after residents complained about an invasion of mosquitoes in recent weeks.

"People can't even sit on their porches," she said.

Holan said she received no response. The councilwoman was appointed four months ago to represent Ward 15, which includes Old Brooklyn. She said health officials should have done more public service announcements to warn residents, given the neighborhood's history of West Nile illness and the summer's dry, hot weather conditions, which nurture its spread.

"Residents of Ward 15, they're getting second-class treatment from the Department of Public Health," Holan said.

Health Director Matt Carroll said the city has not sprayed for mosquitoes for two years.

"It was taken out of the budget at budget-cutting time," Carroll said.

He also said the level of West Nile activity - taking into account positive tests in people and in trapped mosquitoes - would not justify spraying the neighborhood.

The city has recorded 13 or 14 human cases in other areas. Carroll said he knew of only one confirmed case in Old Brooklyn, presumably the case of Don Adams.

Councilwoman Holan said she considers the second case bona fide, even if confirmation has not been reported to the Health Department.

Singell said the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed his partner's virus Sept. 20.

Carroll, responding to criticism of the Health Department, said the city mailed notices about West Nile to residents in utility bills and also put the word out in news releases.

He said the city applies larvacide in watery areas where mosquitoes lay eggs.

Singell and Tim Adams said they thought mosquitoes were breeding in an algae-covered swimming pool a few doors down.

On Saturday they shared concerns with the owner, who on Sunday was draining the pool.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

hspector@plaind.com, 216-999-4543

Carol Peterson, Canada

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 12:35 AM CDT

Dealing with West Nile
BY OLIVIA CLARKE
oclarke@nwitimes.com
219.933.4078

At first Carol Peterson was just a little light-headed.

But that light-headedness turned into dizziness paired with a headache.

She went to the doctor in mid-August and was given several tests and some medication to combat the vertigo. She went back several days later to have blood work done. She was admitted to the hospital Aug. 21 because her conditions worsened.

A few days later she learned she had the West Nile virus, a potentially serious illness that is typically contracted through mosquitoes that become infected when they feed on infected birds.

State health officials announced last Thursday that a Hammond resident died from West Nile virus. As of last Thursday, there were nine reported human cases across the state, and last year there were 11 human cases and one death caused by the virus.

Peterson spent about 2 1/2 weeks in the hospital. Her husband, Michael, said she also developed encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain that is typically caused by a viral infection.

She doesn't remember much from the first week, but family and friends who visited said whenever she opened her eyes they fluttered and jumped around. She spent the week with her eyes mostly closed because of the dizziness.

Doctors told her there was no specific drug therapy for the virus, but one injection drug could work. But nothing changed after she took the drug for three days. Many people feel badly for a couple of days and then get better, she said. West Nile sometimes goes undetected or people do not realize they have it, she said.

"They basically told me everybody reacts differently to it," said the 48-year-old Munster resident, who is a speech therapist. "I was the lucky 1 percent that actually gets sick. I was so dizzy it made me very nauseous. It was like being severely car sick all the time, but only worse."

She eventually moved to the rehabilitation section of the hospital. She said she was in pretty good shape before she got West Nile, but she had to relearn how to walk using a walker. She would walk around the room one time and be worn out, she said.

"I couldn't get out of bed by myself," Peterson said. "Just being dependent on other people was kind of strange. I never got the feeling from doctors or family members that I was at real risk of not making it. I guess I was just an optimist."

Her therapist told her she was making progress and released her Monday. But she must still do exercises at home to control her dizziness.

She said she will know more at her next doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks. She said she still moves slowly and can't drive. Working on the computer can make her dizzy, she said.

"I really don't know where I got it," she said. "I don't think you can be paranoid about a mosquito getting you. ... I don't remember having mosquito bites. You can be careful, but you can't be paranoid."

For the last week and a half she has tried to give herself little projects to do around the house. On Monday she put photos in albums.

Her doctor told her to look at her progress from week to week, not day to day. She said she received a lot of support from friends and family. People took turns staying with her when she came home from the hospital, she said.

Michael Peterson said he is thankful for all the work the hospital did and is thankful for how understanding his employer, Strack & Van Til in Merrillville, was about what his wife was going through.

The doctors expect his wife to make a full recovery, he said. While she seems to be done with the West Nile virus, she's left with the vertigo, he said.

"I've never seen her that ill," he said. "Ever since she graduated college and became a speech therapist she's dealt with children and been around illness. She's had nothing more than a cold her whole life. To see her in that kind of state was scary. To see her totally incapacitated, she couldn't even pick up her head, was a scary experience."

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