COVINGTON, La. Gloria Barber has apparently become the first person in Louisiana to die of West Nile encephalitis this year, although state still has not confirmed she had the disease.
The 74-year-old woman was admitted to Lakeview Regional Medical Center near Mandeville on June 30th. Her son, Craig Simon says that although hospital doctors diagnosed the mosquito-borne virus within a week, state health officials have not acknowledged the case three weeks later.
Simon says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided positive test results to Lakeview's doctors, but the Department of Health and Hospitals required additional testing by the state epidemiologist.
Mark Lombard, chief investigator for the St. Tammany Parish coroner's office, says that Barber's cause of death was complications from West Nile virus. He confirmed she was diagnosed at Lakeview, and that the state health department had been notified.
Lakeview officials declined to comment on the case, and referred questions to the state. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Hospitals says that the agency has not recorded any deaths from West Nile this year.
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see www.west-nile-virus-prevention.com for more west nile virus information
and
center for disease control west nile virus homepage
see www.west-nile-virus-prevention.com for more west nile virus information
and
center for disease control west nile virus homepage
yah, we've had deaths from West Nile too. A friend of ours lost her beloved stallion too, just weeks before a vaccine for the equine strain came available.
ReplyDeleteMy neighborhood sprays for the 'skeeters, and I could fog my backyard, but that would probably kill off all the good bugs too, which would starve the lizards and toads and frogs, which would starve the little snakes..(hmm with that last thought, maybe spraying wouldn't be all that bad), .. anyway. I prefer to slather myself with Deet. I figger I've the responibility for my own "personal" environment, and I don't like messing with Mother Nature's system.