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Re: Just the name of the virus bearing "West Nile" begs the question as to why the heck is such a disease infecting Texas? This is a long way from northern Africa after all.

By: capt_nemo in ROUND | Recommend this post (0)
Fri, 24 Aug 12 7:05 AM | 36 view(s)
Boardmark this board | De's Test Board 		Msg. 43559 of 45651
(This msg. is a reply to 43512 by capt_nemo)
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West Nile cases soar across US: 47 states, 41 deaths

August 23, 2012 – HEALTH - There’s been an alarming increase in the number of West Nile cases nationwide, with more than 1,100 reported, according to officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest CDC figures, released Wednesday, show that the national total for West Nile infections is three times as many as usually seen at this point in the year, officials said. Seventy-five percent of those cases were reported in five states — Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Dakota and Texas — with about half in Texas. “We are in the midst of one of the worst West Nile virus outbreaks ever seen in the U.S.,” Lyle R. Petersen, director of the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, said at a briefing. West Nile cases can be reported in various ways, as mild fevers or more serious diseases. Of the reported infections, at least 629 were of the more serious neuroinvasive diseases, Petersen said. Currently, he said, one of every 150 people infected with the virus develops the more serious illnesses, such as West Nile encephalitis, meningitis or poliomyelitis. Only 29 cases were reported a month ago. Now, the CDC is reporting 1,118 cases spread across 47 states, with 41 deaths. Seventy-five percent of the cases have been reported from five states: Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Illinois. Texas appears to be the hardest hit, with 586 reported cases in total. The death toll in Texas was 21 as of Wednesday, with Dallas County hit hardest, for a total of 270 cases and 11 deaths. No place is striking back harder against the West Nile virus than Texas, which has launched an aerial assault against mosquitoes despite objections from environmental groups. Overnight, planes carrying pesticides took to the skies dousing more than 63,000 acres of land in Dallas and Houston to battle the disease. More than half of those infected in Dallas County this year developed the more severe illnesses, an outbreak that drew the attention of President Obama, who was briefed by CDC officials Tuesday. Petersen said it was not clear whether the number of serious illnesses had increased or if reporting had improved. Those with serious forms of West Nile-related illnesses are usually admitted to hospitals, where officials test and report results. Those with the milder West Nile fever might not see a doctor or be tested. Only about 2 percent to 3 percent of such infections are reported, Petersen said. Those who become infected develop lifelong immunity, said Petersen, who added that he was infected in 2003 when he was bitten by a mosquito while jogging. –ABC News

http://abcnews.go.com/US/west-nile-spreading-farther-faster-season-cdc/story?id=17062832




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Just the name of the virus bearing "West Nile" begs the question as to why the heck is such a disease infecting Texas? This is a long way from northern Africa after all.
By: capt_nemo in ROUND
Thu, 23 Aug 12 5:27 PM 		Msg. 43512 of 45651

When West Nile virus erupted in the Queens borough of New York City in the late-1990s, there was much buzz about the possibility that it was a biological weapon. What nation would have released such a bug against the United States? The primary culprit was Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

In a critical article that received scant popular attention in 1999, The New Yorker magazine revealed startling information that strongly suggests the West Nile virus was a manufactured biological weapon released into the U.S. by Saddam's agent(s).

Here is a key excerpt from the article:

THE mystery of how a West Nile-like virus got to New York City has been troubling the Central Intelligence Agency. At the headquarters of the C.I.A., in Langley, Virginia, there is a group of analysts and officers who concern themselves with biological weapons -- the C.I.A.'s bioweapons-analysis section. The section is run by a senior biologist who has had firsthand experience with some of the world's most dangerous viruses, including the Ebola virus. The scientist is said to be well respected by his peers, and he works with a team of analysts, mainly younger people fresh out of college. The analysts gather intelligence involving bioweapons and then try to assemble the big picture, fitting the data together with what they already know about bioweapons. After the New York diagnosis was changed to West Nile, on September 27th, the top officers in the bioweapons-analysis section suffered a lurch of uneasy recognition: they recalled a report that a self-described defector from Iraq had declared last April that Saddam Hussein was developing a strain of the West Nile virus as a biological weapon and was preparing to release it.

Someone in the analysis section apparently noticed that on April 6th a British tabloid, the Daily Mail of London, had published an excerpt from a book entitled "In the Shadow of Saddam," with a note that the

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