- While there are 58 known cases of mosquito-borne West
Nile virus in Louisiana, one state health official estimated 10,000 to
12,000 other people have been infected, felt no symptoms and are now immune
to the disease.
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- West Nile virus has claimed four lives, two in East Baton
Rouge Parish. Twelve of the 58 cases are from East Baton Rouge Parish.
On Tuesday, Dr. Louis Cataldie, the parish's coroner, confirmed the disease
caused the death of an 83-year-old woman, and now state officials have
added a 75-year-old man to the list.
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- The outbreak in Louisiana will soon be the nation's largest
since the disease came to the United States in 1999. The virus has also
begun to spread across the state from the initial outbreak around Lake
Pontchartrain with human cases confirmed in Calcasieu, Allen and Ouachita
parishes.
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- Ouachita was the site of an outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis
last year that killed four and hospitalized 62 people.
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- State Epidemiologist Raoult Ratard said the state is
awaiting lab results on 34 more suspected cases. Some will prove to be
other diseases, he said. "There is no sign it is going to go down.
This is the beginning," Ratard.
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- The outbreak could last into October and November, Ratard
and other health officials said.
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- David Hood, secretary of the state Department of Health
and Hospitals, said the "magnitude was greater than we expected."
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- Dr. Roy Campbell, of the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, said "it's not time for panic. It's a time
to take action."
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- If not for the mosquito-control efforts in some parishes,
Campbell said the state would see more cases.
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- The Associated Press reported at least 89 people in three
states infected with West Nile, including 44 new cases confirmed Friday.
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- Mississippi reported a total of 22 cases as of Friday
and the rest are from Texas.
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- During a Slidell news conference Friday releasing the
latest figures, DHH Regional Medical Director Dr. Erin Brewer said "there
are probably 10,000 to 12,000 people who have been infected" but experience
no symptoms.
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- Ratard added "those that are not sick are lucky."
He said they should have future immunity from antibodies created as the
immune system fought off the infection.
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- Studies in other outbreaks around the world show that
of 200 people, 179 will be infected and feel no symptoms. Another 20 will
experience flulike symptoms like fever and headache, called West Nile fever.
Only about one victim in 200 infected will develop encephalitis or meningitis,
a swelling of the brain or brain lining.
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- People older than age 50 and those already fighting other
diseases are most at risk, officials said. Of the four dead, one was a
53-year-old man from Folsom, and the other three were ages 83, 75 and 72.
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- Brewer said the best way not to get sick is "avoid
getting bitten by mosquitoes." That means wearing long sleeves and
pants when outdoors and wearing insect repellent, she said.
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- Gov. Mike Foster and Baton Rouge Mayor Bobby Simpson
have declared states of emergency that they hope will help get additional
funding to help combat the outbreak.
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- State Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Slidell, said he's been working
with other state and parish officials to get additional financial resources
for mosquito control agencies and other West Nile-related activities.
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- Schedler, who chairs the Senate's Health and Welfare
Committee, said last year Monroe-area local governments spent $3 million
fighting the St. Louis encephalitis outbreak and the Legislature's Interim
Emergency Board dipped into a special fund to reimburse those agencies
$781,000 of their expenses.
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- Schedler said he thinks there is only $6 million to $7
million in the fund and, based on the projected magnitude of the outbreak,
"we could exhaust that pretty easily, although that is not going to
happen."
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- St. Tammany Mosquito Control Director Charles Palmisano
said he has spent $300,000 to $400,000 more than expected and will soon
exhaust his annual $2.5 million budget. His district has set aside money
for emergencies and can dip into it, he said.
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- The East Baton Rouge Mosquito Control and Rodent Abatement
District has spent nearly 10 times the money on fogging and spraying this
year than was spent in all of 1998, Director Matt Yates said.
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- CDC's Campbell said he and a team of more than a dozen
epidemiologists are looking into the outbreak. "It was detected here
last year, but there is no scientific reason it has broken out here,"
he said.
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- "We are wondering why we have not seen more in Florida,"
Yates said.
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- Based on other outbreaks, West Nile cases might not stop
growing until cool weather sets in October or November, reducing mosquito
activity, Campbell said.
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- Officials say the disease will remain stored in birds
over the winter for future outbreaks.
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- If you or someone in your family have been affected by
a West Nile virus infection, we would like to tell your story to our readers.
Please call Mike Dunne at 225-388-0301 or e-mail him at mdunne@theadvocate.com
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- http://www.theadvocate.com/stories/080302/new_nile001.shtml
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