First West Nile Virus Patient of 2004 Steadily Improving on GenoMed's Treatment
Wednesday April 14, 12:57 pm ET
ST. LOUIS, April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GenoMed, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GMED - News), a Next Generation Disease Management(TM) company that uses its expertise in genomics to improve patient outcomes, said today that the first patient in the U.S. this year with West Nile virus encephalitis continues to show steady improvement on the Company's protocol. This patient represents the tenth success out of eleven consecutive patients to be treated with GenoMed's protocol since August, 2003.
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The patient, a 79-year-old man from Scioto County, Ohio, was admitted April 1st with aseptic (viral) meningitis and encephalitis which rapidly progressed to coma over two days. His initial IgM antibody titers were positive for West Nile virus, and he complained of itching from insect bites when he was admitted to hospital.
Within 24 hours of starting GenoMed's treatment on Saturday, April 10th, the patient could move his fingers and toes when asked to do so. During the previous eight days he had been unresponsive and paralyzed. Although he still cannot talk, he can now open and close his eyes and shake his head in response to questions. He is recovering his ability to think faster than his ability to move.
GenoMed's patent-pending protocol uses blood-pressure drugs that are safe and already familiar to most physicians. They're carried in every drug store. The protocol, developed by Dr. David Moskowitz, the Company's Chairman, CEO and Chief Medical Officer, is based on the theory that brain inflammation and death result from an over-response by the patient's immune system to the West Nile virus. GenoMed's protocol gently suppresses the immune system at an early step in its activation. It is the only treatment available for West Nile virus encephalitis which so far has a 90 percent cure rate. The results of Dr. Moskowitz's first eight patients will be published soon in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
The only way to prove that GenoMed's treatment is effective in West Nile virus encephalitis is to try it in more people. GenoMed is therefore conducting a free, nationwide clinical trial for West Nile virus this summer. So far, 14 people have downloaded the protocol, including the Director of Emergency Services at a Houston hospital.
GenoMed hopes to eliminate the threat of West Nile virus on the 50th anniversary of the famous 1954 polio field trials which ended the threat of polio in the U.S. For more information, click on the "West Nile trial" button at genomedics.com .
Dr. Moskowitz is a Harvard- and Oxford-educated physician, who trained for seven years in Internal Medicine, Biochemistry, and Nephrology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis before spending 11 years on the faculty of St. Louis University School of Medicine. He is a noted pioneer in the field of medical genomics, and has been recognized for his groundbreaking treatment of diseases associated with the angiotensin I-converting enzyme, such as chronic renal failure due to hypertension or type II diabetes. Dr. Moskowitz's research on viruses, including West Nile virus, avian influenza ("bird flu"), and SARS, are regarded as innovative approaches for otherwise incurable diseases.
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