Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (59192)	9/20/2002 12:07:55 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 82486

West Nile Appears Able to Paralyze Six Patients With Virus Have Symptoms Mimicking Polio By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, September 20, 2002; Page A01 West Nile virus apparently has caused six people in Mississippi and Louisiana to develop polio-like paralysis, heightening concern about the rapidly spreading virus, federal health officials reported yesterday. While there have been some previous reports of muscle weakness and paralysis in people infected with the virus, the earlier cases were probably misdiagnosed as a different neurological disease, federal officials said. Now they believe the polio-like syndrome, which has left several victims struggling for their lives on a respirator, may be a direct manifestation of West Nile infection, and they want to alert doctors so they do not misdiagnose patients and give them the wrong medications. Health officials stressed that most people who become infected with West Nile virus do not get sick, or they experience relatively mild, flulike symptoms. In a small percentage of cases -- mostly among old or ill people -- infection can lead to encephalitis, a life-threatening brain inflammation. In contrast, most of the new paralysis cases reported have occurred among people who were previously healthy and middle-aged. The extent of the paralysis varies widely: Some victims lost the use of an arm or a leg, while several others have needed ventilators to enable them to breathe, CDC officials said. Their likelihood of recovery remained unclear. Experts from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration also said yesterday that West Nile virus can survive in some blood products and can probably be passed through blood transfusions. As a result, federal officials said they were increasingly convinced that they needed to quickly develop a screening test to protect supplies in blood banks. Taken together, the new developments underscored the increasing concern among health officials over West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne microbe that appeared in the United States three years ago in New York. The number of cases has increased dramatically this year. According to CDC statistics as of yesterday, the number of reported West Nile virus cases has spiked to 1,745 nationwide, including 84 deaths, reported in 31 states and the District. Although much of the attention has been focused on outbreaks in the Deep South, the largest number of cases and deaths has been reported in Illinois. Michigan and Ohio have also recorded more than 100 new cases this month. The Washington region has not been a center of the West Nile epidemic, although there have been five reported cases in Maryland, 11 in Virginia and three in the District. There have been no deaths reported in the area and no reports of polio-like paralysis. The six patients who were paralyzed after becoming infected with the virus all got sick within the last two months, and none has shown signs of recovery, the officials said. According to James J. Sejvar, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC, the agency is investigating other cases of "acute flaccid paralysis" in patients with West Nile virus. In the lead article of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a team including Sejvar urged doctors to be alert to polio-like symptoms, especially if West Nile virus is present in the area. The report said the symptoms can be confused with a condition known as Guillain-Barré syndrome, and warned doctors against quickly treating for that disease because it could jeopardize patients with the polio-like complications from West Nile virus. Sejvar said the West Nile paralysis has generally occurred soon after the patient became sick, and that there is no known way to prevent it or to predict when it will appear. He said medical literature has reported cases of West Nile-related paralysis in the past in the United States and abroad, but that it was misunderstood as Guillain-Barré. According to Sejvar's report, the polio-like syndrome has been found in primates and other animals infected with West Nile. The studies documented damage to cells known as anterior horn cells in the spinal cord, the same motor neurons that cause some of the disabling effects of polio. As many as 200,000 Americans have been exposed to West Nile virus since 1999. The virus is common in the Middle East, parts of Africa and Eastern Europe. The discovery earlier this month that the virus was apparently spread through an organ transplant was followed by the CDC's finding that a 24-year-old Mississippi woman became infected with West Nile after receiving blood transfusions from three infected donors. CDC doctors called that case "highly suspicious," although they said the woman also could have been bitten by an infected mosquito. But because of that case and several others, the federal health officials concluded West Nile virus most likely can be spread by through blood transfusions and organ donations. "Since this transmission by transfusion appears likely, it is likely also that we will need to move toward testing of donor blood," said Jesse Goodman of the FDA. "While the investigation is ongoing, we believe there's sufficient evidence when you put it all together that there likely is a risk." Goodman couldn't predict when the tests would be available and how much they would cost. But he said intensive discussions are underway between government and industry on speeding the effort. "What we're trying to do here is jump-start this process . . . so we can get a test as soon as possible," he said. © 2002 The Washington Post Company