Glenn Downer (2), NV

Blackouts, other problems plague Fallon man with virus
Nevada Appeal News Service

Glenn Downer is confined to a bed in his home and is now partially paralyzed after he was bitten by a mosquito and contracted West Nile virus.

BURKE WASSON
Nevada Appeal News Service
August 28, 2005


FALLON - While spending an August afternoon tending to his backyard garden, Fallon resident Glenn Downer was stricken with a common summertime nuisance - a mosquito bite.

But after a few weeks of deteriorating health and a few blood tests in September, doctors concluded the 83-year-old Downer was suffering from an affliction far from the ordinary - West Nile virus.

According to reports obtained from the Nevada State Health Laboratory in Reno and Quest Diagnostics in Las Vegas, Downer tested positive for West Nile in September 2004.

Since then, he has experienced multiple health problems including paralysis, blackouts and loss of memory and has been prescribed to a hospital bed in his home since Feb. 28.

While the West Nile virus is not contagious in humans and only mosquito bites can spread it, Glenn's 77-year-old wife, Doloris Downer, said she never expected something as small as that bite to cause so many health problems in her husband of 58 years.

"It's very serious," she said. "I think the fact that he was fairly healthy before he was bit makes it even more serious. But ever since then, he's just not the same."

Glenn is now confined to a bed in his home and is visited by various doctors and nurses' assistants a few times a week. While he struggles to carry on a conversation, he appears to be in good spirits and can acknowledge visitors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, less than 1 percent of people who are infected with West Nile develop a fatal illness, and most don't develop any illness at all.

The fatality rate for humans who have been diagnosed with West Nile is 3 percent to 15 percent and is highest among the elderly.

The fact that Glenn was 82 when he was diagnosed with the virus in September and has lived nearly a year later has been tempered by the fact that he has experienced multiple health problems since his diagnosis.

After Glenn was bitten last August, Doloris said, he didn't show any symptoms or any illness for a few weeks until Labor Day morning.

"We were going to be out picking peaches and plums in the garden," Doloris said. "Glenn usually gets up and shaves and gets dressed right away. Well, that morning he was just slumped at the table and he said he was so tired. He said he'd never been that tired."

Doloris told Glenn to get some sleep, and he did - until 7 p.m.

Eventually, Glenn was taken Sept. 8 to Banner Churchill Community Hospital, where his memory slipped and he was suffering from the first stages of the virus, although no one yet suspected him of having West Nile.

He still experiences blackouts from his bed, and Doloris said Glenn told her he had "the worst one he ever had" nearly four weeks ago.

"His legs flew straight up and his eyes closed," she said. "He told me afterward he'd had quite a bad one."

Glenn is still on 72-hour pain patches for all the ailments he's contracted since being diagnosed with West Nile.

Through it all, Doloris said she never would have expected her husband to catch the virus, which made its first reported appearance in Nevada last year.

"I'm not sure what West Nile does to the body, but I know he's not been the same since," she said. "He's had a bladder infection, paralysis, spasms - he's just not the same."



n Burke Wasson can be contacted at bwasson@lahontanvalleynews.com

Mark Gardner, OH

Teacher recovering from West Nile virus

33-year-old Dayton father developed severe form of mosquito-borne disease



Click to Enlarge
Mark Gardner, his wife, Katy, and their 10-month-old daughter, Kendra, sit in their Dayton living room Friday. Mark Gardner, a physical education teacher at Empire Elementary School, is recovering from the West Nile virus. BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal
by F.T. Norton
Appeal Staff Writer, ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com
August 28, 2005

DAYTON - About three weeks ago, Mark Gardner starting feeling sick. He had headaches, body aches, fever and fatigue.

When his fever spiked to 103.5 degrees, Gardner went to the doctor.

A battery of tests later, the Empire Elementary School physical education teacher was diagnosed with West Nile meningitis, an inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord and a more severe form of West Nile virus.

"Right now I don't have the energy to go back to school. That drives me nuts. I had just gotten my books and was starting to get read. Now I don't have the energy to think about it," Gardner said from his Dayton home. "It takes all I have just to walk down the hall."

Gardner doesn't appear to be among four other Nevadans reported by the Nevada Nevada State Health Division as being diagnosed this year with the viral infection.

West Nile virus was detected in Nevada in 2004 and has been reported in all counties except Lander and Esmeralda. The virus is not spread person to person and is most commonly transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitos who fed on infected birds.

"I was kind of relieved to know what was wrong finally. They were testing for this and that and they just didn't know -that was stressful," Gardner said.

He speculated he may have been contracted the illness while playing softball or golf, but he has no recollection of being bitten by a mosquito. The incubation period in humans can be from two to 15 days.

With no specific treatment for West Nile, the normally active father and husband just has to sweat it out.

"I'm feeling tons better," he said Friday. "I'm hoping after one more week I'll be able to go (to work)."

According to the Center for Disease Control, there were 4,156 reports of human infection in 44 states. Of these, about 3,000 were central nervous system disease cases, 300 of which were fatal.

In the U.S., West Nile virus cases are most prevalent in late summer and early autumn; in Nevada, mosquito season is typically April through October, according to Nevada Health Division.

Generally, the elderly and young are most susceptible to the severe and sometimes fatal forms of the disease - a sobering and eye-opening fact for Gardner, whose daughter Kendra is just 10 months old.

"I'm definitely glad it was me who got this," he said. "I'm going to stock up on bug spray."



Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.

Glenn Downer, NV

Lahontan Valley News

Living with West Nile: Glenn Downer said a mosquito bite brought on malady


http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=LF&Date=20050827&Category=News&ArtNo=108270012&Ref=AR&MaxW=550&title=1
Doloris Downer talks about the timeline of her husband Glenn's deteriorating health after he was bitten by a mosquito and contracted West Nile virus. Below, Downer is confined to a bed in his home and is now partially paralyzed.

BURKE WASSON
BURKE WASSON, bwasson@lahontanvalleynews.com
August 27, 2005

While spending an August afternoon tending to his backyard garden, Fallon resident Glenn Downer was stricken with a common summertime nuisance - a mosquito bite.

But after a few weeks of deteriorating health and a few blood tests in September, doctors concluded that the 83-year-old Downer was suffering from an affliction far from the ordinary - West Nile virus.

According to reports obtained from the Nevada State Health Laboratory in Reno and Quest Diagnostics in Las Vegas, Downer tested positive for West Nile in September 2004.

Since that time, he claims he has experienced multiple health problems including paralysis, blackouts and loss of memory and has been confined to a hospital bed in his home since Feb. 28.

While the West Nile virus is not contagious in humans and only mosquito bites can spread it, Glenn's 77-year-old wife, Doloris Downer, said she never expected something as small as that bite to cause so many health problems in her husband of 58 years.

"It's very serious," she said. "I think the fact that he was fairly healthy before he was bit makes it even more serious. But ever since then, he's just not the same."

Glenn now spends most of his time in bed and is visited by various doctors and nurses' assistants a few times a week. While he struggles to carry on a conversation, he appears to be in good spirits and can acknowledge visitors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, less than 1 percent of people who are infected with West Nile develop a fatal illness, and most don't develop any illness at all.

The fatality rate for humans who have been diagnosed with West Nile is 3 percent to 15 percent and is highest among the elderly.

The fact that Glenn was 82 when he was diagnosed with the virus in September and has lived nearly a year later has been tempered by the multiple health problems he has experienced over the past 12 months.

After Glenn was bitten last August, Doloris said he didn't show any symptoms or any illness for a few weeks until Labor Day morning.

"We were going to be out picking peaches and plums in the garden," Doloris said. "Glenn usually gets up and shaves and gets dressed right away. Well, that morning he was just slumped at the table and he said he was so tired. He said he'd never been that tired."

Doloris told Glenn to get some sleep, and he did - until 7 p.m.

Eventually, Glenn was taken Sept. 8 to Banner Churchill Community Hospital, where his memory slipped and he was suffering from the first stages of the virus, although no one yet suspected him of having West Nile.

Doloris said Glenn was diagnosed with pneumonia at Banner and was then taken to the Regent Care Center in Reno.

He was taken Sept. 13 to Regent Care of Reno with an initial diagnosis of pneumonia. Once there and at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, it was confirmed that wasn't the case. It was there that they learned he had West Nile.

"It really surprised me," she said. "I thought he had a stroke. But his brain was so swollen from the West Nile, that they couldn't tell if he had a stroke or not."

After returning home in December for the holidays, Glenn collapsed at the dinner table Dec. 27 and was taken by ambulance to Banner Churchill Community Hospital once again.

Since being released from the hospital that time, he has been at home in bed since Feb. 28, after local physician Lyle Hutto prescribed it for Glenn.

He still experiences blackouts from his bed, and Doloris said Glenn told her he had "the worst one he ever had" nearly four weeks ago.

"His legs flew straight up and his eyes closed," she said. "He told me afterward he'd had quite a bad one."

Glenn is still on 72-hour pain patches for all the ailments he's contracted since being diagnosed with West Nile.

Through it all, Deloris said she never would have expected her husband to catch the virus, which made its first reported appearance in Nevada last year.

"I'm not sure what West Nile does to the body, but I know he's not been the same since," she said. "He's had a bladder infection, paralysis, spasms - he's just not the same."

Burke Wasson can be contacted at bwasson@lahontanvalleynews.com

Shane Ducharme, Manitoba-CAN

Thursday, August 25th, 2005
Teen has West Nile - Ducharme family wants Brandon fogged for mosquitoes
By: Ian Hitchen

Shane Ducharme recuperates from a confirmed case of West Nile virus as his mother Connie looks on Wednesday afternoon in their Brandon home. The teen first visited the family doctor on Aug. 15 after developing a rash.

(Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun)
Brandon has recorded its first human case of West Nile virus this year and the 14-year-old’s parents want the city fogged for mosquitoes to avoid future cases of the illness.

Connie Ducharme said their family doctor called her Tuesday to let her know her bed-ridden son is suffering from the mosquito-bourne virus.

“It’s here, how many other people can it happen to?” Ducharme said, adding she wants other Brandon parents warned.

“I think (he was infected) here because he’s spent the majority of his time outdoors in Brandon.”

Her son Shane first visited the family doctor on Aug. 15 after he developed a rash on his chest, back and legs.

At first, the doctor thought it was some form of virus that had to run its course, but Shane slept most of the next two days and developed nausea, a headache and sore legs.

He was sent to the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Aug. 18 where Ducharme said a doctor took a blood sample to test for West Nile, just in case.

Shane spent three days in hospital. Now home, his headaches are gone but Shane, who usually likes bike riding and hanging around with friends, still doesn’t feel well.

“I get dizzy when I stand up, my stomach is so sore right now,” he said.

Usually, people infected by West Nile virus have no symptoms and do not become ill. When they do they can have a fever, headaches, fatigue and body aches. Milder symptoms of West Nile fever usually improve without medical care.

Less common is West Nile neurological syndrome which can inflame the brain. In some cases the virus can cause serious illness or death.

Manitoba Health reports 21 Manitobans have tested positive for the virus this year, including five new cases reported yesterday. Shane is the first in the Brandon Regional Health Authority to test positive for the virus and there have been five positive tests reported in the Assiniboine RHA, which surrounds Brandon.

Elise Weiss, medical officer of health for both health authorities, said there’s a chance more West Nile cases will be found.

“There’s still some mosquito activity,” Weiss said. “It’s still certainly a possibility.”

That’s why the Ducharmes want the city fogged.

The province’s chief medical officer of health has to order mosquito fogging to battle West Nile and city’s public works manager Rick Bailey said city crews already have the truck-mounted equipment and malathion needed should the order be made. There are currently no such plans, said Weiss.

“If the province calls us and gives the order for us to spray then we’re ready to go,” Bailey said, adding the city has been larvaciding since the start of May and continues even though mosquito season is coming to a close.

Bailey said the province deals with culex tarsalis, the pest that carries the virus, while the city controls nuisance mosquitoes that don’t generally carry West Nile. The city larvacides rather than sprays because it’s more efficient, he said.

Residents can protect themselves by reducing the time they spend outdoors between dusk and dawn and wear light-coloured, loose-fitting, long-sleeved tops and long pants outdoors.

They should also wear insect repellent containing DEET, and check door and window screens fit tightly and are free of holes.

Jim Becker, FL

For him, West Nile is much, much worse than the flu

Though a Largo man keeps hearing talk of mild flu-like symptoms, he has been ravaged by the disease. He still can't walk.

By LISA GREENE, Times Staff Writer
Published August 23, 2005
[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
Jim Becker, 55, finishes dinner at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Largo. He fell ill on July 28; doctors later diagnosed West Nile.

LARGO - Just a few weeks ago, Jim Becker spent hours outside every day, working in the yard and walking 7 miles a day.

But Becker, 55, never wore mosquito repellent. He didn't spend time worrying about West Nile virus.

He does now.

Becker still can't walk. He can barely raise his left arm. He has lost 16 pounds. And he remembers little about the last few weeks - the fever so high he was packed in ice, the delirium, the tremors.

But he wants everyone to know just how bad West Nile can be. The news reports he has seen on TV, the ones that talk about mild flu-like symptoms, don't begin to describe what he has gone through.

"I'd like to have everybody know this is not like getting the flu," he said.

What happened to Becker is one of the puzzles of West Nile, a virus that showed up in the United States in 1999. Scientists admit they still don't know enough about it.

Most people who get infected with the virus, carried by mosquitoes, never get sick. Most of the rest get sick for a few days or a week, with symptoms that doctors describe as flu-like.

But a few are unlucky. About one in 150 people develop far worse symptoms. They become too weak to move, lapse into comas, even die.

Nobody knows why.

"It's one of the most intriguing and important questions we face," said Dr. Ned Hayes, a medical epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's a complicated and difficult question to answer."

Doctors know people are more likely to get really sick if they're elderly, or have immune symptoms weakened by cancer or other diseases. Diabetes and high blood pressure might be risk factors.

But could there be something else? A genetic difference that makes it easier for West Nile to invade cells? Some research indicates that some mice have a gene that helps them resist the disease, Hayes said. But that resistance has never been demonstrated in humans.

In many diseases, people have immunity built up because they've been exposed before. But few U.S. residents have been exposed to West Nile.

"You're not dealing with widespread immunity," Hayes said.

Sometimes, the virus changes rapidly so that some people get infected with a stronger variant. But strains of the virus found in different parts of the country have been very similar, Hayes said.

"At this point, we need to advocate that everybody take precautions against mosquito bites," he said. "We don't have all the answers."

That's the message Becker hopes to send. Although his memories of the last few weeks are fuzzy, his wife of 32 years, Gail, remembers it all.

He first felt sick on a Thursday, July 28.

By then, health officials had warned the public that some of Pinellas County's sentinel chickens had tested positive for the virus. But the county's first-ever human case wasn't confirmed until the day after Becker fell ill.

Pinellas now has eight cases of people with the virus. Health officials say all are recovering.

Health officials can't warn the public with specific details of patients' cases because of medical confidentiality rules, said spokeswoman Jeannine Mallory. But she says they want people to realize the disease can be serious and take precautions.

"You walk a fine line there, because the majority of people don't know they have it, or have flu-like symptoms," she said. "We don't want people to be overly alarmed, but we want them to be alert and conscientious."

At first, Becker had chills and fever. On Friday, he was worse. Saturday, he went to the doctor, and came home with antibiotics.

Sunday, he tried to get out of a chair and couldn't walk.

"The only thing that clicks in my head ... is falling against the furniture," Jim Becker said.

His family took him to the hospital, where an infectious disease specialist told Gail Becker he suspected West Nile. It would take more tests to be sure.

"I was scared to death," she said.

She tried not to show it around her husband. She waited until she got home to cry. They had been together since she was 17, and she had never seen him so ill.

It's still strange to her that he got such a bad case of the disease. After all, Becker, a retired electrician, was fit. He walked around Taylor Park so much that a police officer recognized him when he arrived in the Largo Medical Center emergency room. He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke.

"He's Mr. Healthy Guy," she said.

Jim Becker smiled.

"Luck of the draw," he said.

After 11 days in the hospital, Becker was moved to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Largo. On Wednesday, he will have been there for two weeks.

When he arrived, he looked much worse, said his brother-in-law, Gregg Frangipane.

"He looked like he'd had a stroke," Frangipane said.

In physical therapy, Becker at first lacked the finger strength to open a clothespin.

Now, he can lift his right arm above his shoulder. Doctors aren't sure how much he'll recover, but Becker has set some goals.

"First, to kill every mosquito in the world," he joked.

What he would really like is to be home, able to walk, by Aug. 31. Even with a walker. It will be his 56th birthday.

He wants a party, the kind where normally he would be the chef.

"We can have a little barbecue, and I can tell people what to do: "You over there! The chicken's burning!"'

Then he'll work on the long-term.

"That's my next goal," Becker said. "To be back to 7 miles at Taylor Park."

His sister, Peggy Frangipane, hopes he'll do things a little differently.

"Wear OFF! this time," she told him.
[Last modified August 23, 2005, 04:45:04]

Mitch Coffman-LA

Back Article published Aug 22, 2005
West Nile survivor recalls fight
Lafayette man nearly died from mosquito-borne illness

Claire Taylor
ctaylor@theadvertiser.com

Mitch Coffman was a healthy 37-year-old landscape architect pursuing dual graduate degrees at LSU in August 2002 when his life suddenly and mysteriously changed.

It began with a slight ringing in his ears and a headache that gradually increased as though pressure were building inside his head. Coffman dismissed the symptoms and headed to an LSU football game. Oddly, he couldn't find his friends among the fans in Tiger Stadium, even though they were in the same place the group always met. Coffman was confused and disoriented. He went home without watching the game.

By midnight, Coffman said he suffered "complete body failure," which included profuse diarrhea, night sweats and excruciating headaches. By 7 a.m. the next day, he called a friend, pleading for help.

"Dude, I'm dying," he recalled saying.

Thirty minutes later, when the friend took him to the hospital, Coffman collapsed out of the car, unable to walk. He knew he was in trouble, but for weeks, neither Coffman nor his doctors could identify the cause.

Coffman was one of the first in Louisiana to suffer the effects of the West Nile virus, probably contracted from a mosquito bite he suffered while working in his garden.
Ignorance and indifference

Back in 2002, Louisiana was just beginning to experience West Nile virus in epidemic proportions. Physicians weren't prepared to diagnose the disease, Coffman said, pointing to that first emergency room visit.

"At that point, I was failing, and no one in the emergency room was recognizing that," he said.

Coffman was diagnosed with vertigo and an inner ear infection, and was sent home.

Confined to his bed for days, Coffman was extremely sensitive to light, sound and movements. Days later, he saw an ear, nose and throat doctor who immediately admitted him to a Baton Rouge hospital.

Confusion prevailed as doctors looked for traditional answers, including multiple sclerosis, stroke, even tendinitis. Weeks into a hospital stay in which he experienced seizures and writhed in pain, doctors finally tested for West Nile virus. It was positive. Coffman had developed encephalitis and meningitis.

Even then doctors weren't sure how to treat him. They said they couldn't really do anything except provide "compassionate care," Coffman said. His symptoms eased and worsened over five weeks. A weekend doctor, not his regular physician, suddenly sent Coffman home alone with three doses of steroids. He gained more than 50 pounds in three days, his legs swelled and cracked, he was sick and miserable. The next week, his regular internist re-admitted him to the hospital, but Coffman said the caregivers had grown weary of him because he didn't seem to be improving.

"These people were not understanding what was happening to me," he said. "Their ignorance became indifference."
Family support

It was October 2002, and Hurricane Lili was bearing down on Louisiana. Unhappy with the care he was receiving, Coffman left the hospital, convincing his parents and siblings in Lafayette that he could make it on his own. However, Coffman seriously misjudged his ability to care for himself. His body again began to shut down, and he became disoriented. He collapsed on the floor but managed to crawl to his cell phone and dial one of his sisters in Lafayette before blacking out.

Coffman slipped in and out of coherence for hours. He heard his sister screaming on the telephone, heard a friend banging on his door and heard another friend hollering into his answering machine. He couldn't respond.

Then came a knock on the door and the familiar voice of his father, Vernon. Somehow, Mitch managed to get to the door. His parents had driven through the approaching storms of Lili from Lafayette to Baton Rouge.

"He said, 'We came to take you home, boy,' " Mitch said, wiping away tears. "I just said, 'Thank you.' "

Vernon carried his grown son to the car, and the family drove across the Atchafalaya Basin as the hurricane approached. He remained at his parents' home for six weeks with fever, seizures and sweats.

"I was just trying to live," he said.

By late November, Coffman began to experience better periods but would again relapse. He did not walk normally for about 20 months.

"The doctors said if he would not have been young, healthy and in real good shape, he would not have survived," Vernon Coffman said. "That was one of the worst cases they had seen."

When did Mitch Coffman know he would be OK?

"That's relative," he said, explaining that he's still not truly recovered. However, Coffman experienced a turning point earlier this year.

"In February, I woke up and I felt different, more clear," he said.
Sharing the support

His experiences with West Nile virus led Coffman to create a support group, the West Nile Virus Survivors Foundation, and a Web site at www.westnilesurvivor.com.

He wants others to know the virus is survivable. He wants them to share and document their experiences so that the medical and scientific communities can better learn how to diagnose and treat the disease, which presents itself differently in each person.

Survivors and their families are seeking answers, Coffman said. They are dealing with lingering effects of a disease they don't understand and the medical community does not understand.

"Our message is you can survive this, but you can die from it, also," he said. "If we can help you understand the seriousness of this and the lingering effects and how to deal with those, that's the best thing we can do."
No cure

Coffman still struggles at times physically and emotionally from the ordeal. He credits his family for his recovery and faults the medical and scientific community for not recognizing the disease and knowing how to treat patients even today.

The public health community is focusing on prevention, but failing to look beyond prevention to the treatment or cure of those who acquire the virus, Coffman said. Treatment of West Nile patients today still is uncertain in part because the disease affects everyone differently. Some develop encephalitis, others meningitis, some develop both, Coffman said.

Dr. Raoult Ratard, state epidemiologist, said there still is no drug to kill West Nile virus, so physicians treat the brain swelling and provide the patient with support.

"If West Nile virus killed too many cells in your brain, something is not going to work," leaving some patients with speech impediments or balance problems, he said.

Ratard counters Coffman's assertion that the medical community was unprepared for the West Nile virus epidemic. In 2001, Louisiana diagnosed one human case of West Nile virus and identified the virus in birds and horses. Officials knew an outbreak was coming and advised the medical community of symptoms, warning residents to take precautions against being bitten by mosquitoes that transmit the disease, he said.

By the end of 2002, 204 people in Louisiana - including Coffman - had contracted West Nile virus, Ratard said.

Joan Randall, CA

A West Nile mystery
Age, immune system, genetics may affect severity of symptoms
By Dorsey Griffith -- Bee Medical Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, August 21, 2005
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee

Joan Randall keeps two glass trophies on her mantel, small but meaningful tributes to her years of lifesaving contributions.
As a regular donor to Blood Source, the 60-year-old Davis woman also has received scads of information about West Nile virus, the mosquito-borne illness that can spread through blood transfusions and, in rare cases, be deadly to those vulnerable to the disease.

Even so, Randall never gave her body aches a thought when, earlier this month, she traipsed into the Blood Source site in Davis for her regular twice-monthly platelet donation.

"I thought I had gotten sick because I was working too hard," Randall said.

Instead, as she would learn, Randall had become Yolo County's first confirmed case of West Nile virus in 2005, a year that's become Northern California's worst yet for human infection rates.

Randall's fairly mild bout with West Nile is typical of someone who develops symptoms. For all the fear of the mosquito bite this season, most victims won't even know they've been infected unless diagnosed through a blood test.

"What I've learned from (Joan's) experience is that a lot of very mundane symptoms can occur with this virus," said Dr. Barbara Renwick, Randall's family practitioner in Davis who provided the follow-up care. "It basically encompasses any of the symptoms we commonly see from a viral illness - things like fever, fatigue, rash, nausea, diarrhea, congestion and joint aches."

Researchers have determined that four out of five people infected with West Nile will not experience symptoms. Twenty percent will get symptoms that can be as mild as flulike fever, body aches and rash. Only one in 150 will experience the most serious consequences: central nervous system problems such as disabling paralysis, brain inflammation or meningitis that can lead to death.

Why do some people get gravely ill from West Nile, while many others never know they've been infected?

"The question is one of the more interesting and perplexing questions we face," said Dr. Ned Hayes, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins. Colo. "We know that age is a risk factor, but we don't really know why."

As a 60-year-old, Randall falls into this higher risk category. But if she hadn't given blood, Randall may never have known she had the virus.

Her encounter with West Nile began July 27 with exhaustion and a headache she experienced while spending time with her 2-year-old grandson. She was relieved when the boy took a long nap, giving her a chance to rest. The next day, Randall thought she felt well enough to have dinner out with friends, but tuckered out before night's end.

"I would not walk one block until I knew for sure I was going in the right direction, because my legs and my feet hurt so much," she said. "It was like pushing a chain. That's how I felt."

A compact dynamo of a woman with lively brown-and-green-flecked eyes, Randall figured she had overdone it in the intense heat. In recent days, she had painted her house, broken up a concrete path in her front yard with a jackhammer and demolished a wooden deck.

Confronting her symptoms, she said, she tried to get more "centered," adjusting her mind-set, slowing her pace.

About a week later, on Aug. 4, Randall was feeling normal again and returned to donate blood. This time, her contribution was rejected after it tested positive for West Nile. She won't be able to donate again for six months, when the blood bank safely can assume she is free of the virus.

Dr. Chris Gresens, medical director of clinical services at Blood Source, which runs 17 fixed donation sites throughout the region, said the blood banking industry has been testing for West Nile for two years. While Blood Source had been running the tests on pools of 16 samples at a time, the caseload surge in both Sacramento and Butte counties this month prompted the bank to start testing each sample separately.

In most cases, Gresens said, donors are surprised to learn they've tested positive. While some report having had flulike symptoms, he said, most say they've had no signs of illness.

Older people not only are more susceptible to West Nile virus, but also are at higher risk for developing a more serious, neuroinvasive form of the disease. Of the 58 cases diagnosed so far in Sacramento County, 20 people have developed a neuroinvasive complication. Those with more serious illness range in age from 29 to 86; the median age is 57.

Doctors aren't sure why Randall's case didn't progress to a more severe condition such as encephalitis or the poliolike syndrome called flaccid paralysis.

In addition to age, immune function appears to play a role in who gets sick and who doesn't, experts say. Even so, the effects are not across the board.

"We don't really understand what the mechanisms are," said the CDC's Hayes. "The risk is higher in older people, but we don't know why. It could be related to a decrease in the strength of the immune system with age, or it could be related to underlying conditions that become more frequent with age."

For example, research has found that people who have suppressed immune systems as a result of organ transplants are at greater risk for a West Nile-related illness. Those with diabetes and high blood pressure also may be at higher risk.

By the same token, there is no evidence that people with HIV, AIDS, cancer or other diseases that weaken immune function are at higher risk, Hayes said.

Hayes suggested that genetics may play a role, as well.

Researchers have found a gene that confers resistance to mosquito-borne viruses such as yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever and St. Louis encephalitis - in mice. "It hasn't been elucidated in humans yet," Hayes said.

Even lacking scientific proof, Randall believes maybe her mother passed along some disease resistance.

"My mother had tuberculosis in the 1930s and most everyone in her sanitarium died," she said. "My mother had breast cancer when she was 71; they said she would die in two years and she lived a long life - she died when she was 84. As my mama would say, 'I'm from good stock.' "

Tom Beardman, CA-Victim

Banning Man Sixth Californian To Die Of West Nile Virus
Health Officials Say Former Police Officer Had Underlying Illnesses
UPDATED: 5:38 pm PDT August 18, 2005

BANNING, Calif. -- A 72-year-old retired police officer is the sixth Californian to die from West Nile virus this year, health officials said.

The man "did have some serious underlying illnesses, which may have complicated his condition," Riverside County Disease Control Director Barbara Cole said. Tests confirmed Tuesday that he had the illness.

His widow identified the victim as Tom Beardman, a former Anaheim police officer. He was hospitalized on July 13 after suffering a headache, breathing problems and neck, back and chest pain, Barbara Smith-Beardman said.

He lost consciousness the next day and died Sunday at Loma Linda University Medical Center, she said.

West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes, which are active at dusk.

Beardman's widow said that despite the insects, he often enjoyed sitting outside at nightfall. They lived on a golf course and had the view.

"He'd sit out there with a big citronella candle and a flyswatter," she told The Press-Enterprise.

In Riverside County, 31 people have contracted the virus this year, including Beardman and one other man who died, authorities said.

Around the state as of Tuesday, 208 cases had been reported since Jan. 1.

Most of the cases have been in Central and Northern California, said Vicki Kramer, chief of the Vectorborne Disease Section of the California Department of Health Services.

In addition to the two deaths in Riverside County, victims have died in Fresno, Kings, San Joaquin and Butte counties.

The virus killed 100 people in the country last year, including 28 in California.

Most people who contract the virus display no symptoms. About one in five develop mild symptoms that can include fever, headache, body aches, rash and fatigue. About one in 150 suffer life-threatening swelling of the brain or spinal cord.

State health officials advise people to wear insect repellent and get rid of standing water, where mosquitoes breed.

Dave Vincent- OH

Clermont man inches toward recovery from West Nile virus
Hamilton Co. mosquito ills also suspected

By Maggie Downs
Enquirer staff writer
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UNION TWP. - Dave Vincent can put a shirt over his head by himself.

It's those little milestones that mean much more, now that the Clermont County man is recovering from West Nile virus.

Vincent, 47, is the region's first confirmed case this year of the virus, which attacks the central nervous system and is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.

He was diagnosed on Aug. 5. The Clermont County Health District was notified Aug. 8 and confirmed the case.

"Right now it feels great to be alive, which is no understatement," Vincent said.

Most people who are bitten by a West Nile-infected mosquito never get sick, with about 80 percent showing no symptoms at all.

Up to 20 percent have some symptoms, such as fever, headache and nausea.

Vincent, finance director for Fairfield Ford, is one of the few who developed serious symptoms, which appear within two to 15 days after being infected.

His aches began in late July, around the time he was vacationing in Tampa, Fla.

"Really, I thought I was just tired, and I blamed it on the heat," he said.

After returning to Ohio, Vincent's temperature blazed around 103 degrees. He suffered almost a complete loss of upper body strength. His brain developed some swelling. His vocal cords were temporarily paralyzed. Muscle spasms made his body shake.

"You could see the nerves underneath my arm just jumping," he said.

He spent a few days in the intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital Anderson, as well as some time in the emergency room. After tests, the doctors determined the infection was West Nile virus.

"There isn't a part of my body this didn't attack," Vincent said.

The Clermont County Health District collected mosquitoes from Vincent's property twice last week. The mosquitoes were sent to the Ohio Department of Health for tests to see if they match West Nile samples. The Clermont agency is awaiting results.

"We have not had any positive batches [of mosquitoes] that we have sent previously [this season]," said Health Commissioner Janet Rickabaugh.

"It is likely that this will be positive. We're assuming the contact was here," she said.

Last year in Ohio, there were 12 confirmed human cases of the virus and two deaths.

A Hamilton County woman had a suspected case of the West Nile virus and was awaiting test results.

On Wednesday, Good Samaritan Hospital spokesman Joe Kelley said the hospital cannot release details about the patient's status. However, a spokesman from the Hamilton County Health District said the county has no confirmed human cases of West Nile.

As for Vincent, he is recovering a little more each day.

"Every day I can move my arm a little more or squeeze my hand a little bit more," he said. "It sounds silly, but these are milestones for me."

E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com