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Doctors link polio to West Nile virus
Boston Globe ^ | September 24, 2002 | Stephen Smith

Posted on 09/24/2002 2:17:21 AM PDT by sarcasm

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:08:20 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

In case reports released yesterday, stunned neurologists in Mississippi and Georgia describe the conditions of four patients suffering from the hobbled limbs, impaired breathing, and fevers that are the hallmark of polio, a disease essentially eradicated in the United States.


(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: archaeology; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; westnilevirus
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1 posted on 09/24/2002 2:17:21 AM PDT by sarcasm
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To: blam
ping
2 posted on 09/24/2002 2:18:27 AM PDT by sarcasm
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To: sarcasm; All
You know what I think... I'll cross-link it:

West Nile Virus- Bring Back DDT?


100 things you should know about DDT

-West Nile Virus- some basic information--

3 posted on 09/24/2002 2:44:40 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: sarcasm; Mitchell
Couldn't a little genetic fiddling put some material from one disease into the guise of another?

I'm no biochemist, but I've run into articles on bioweapons research, and isn't this part of the effort? By inserting material, say polio, from one pathogen into another, say west nile, you make it that much more difficult to identify and treat, because the tests will say one thing while the symptoms say another. This can effectively prevent the target from becoming alerted until the stuff has already been widely spread, and because of the mixed properties it can be harder to diagnose and harder to treat.

4 posted on 09/24/2002 3:02:42 AM PDT by piasa
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To: sarcasm
Do you think this will be enough to make some of the "it couldn't be terrorism" crowd to rethink their position?
5 posted on 09/24/2002 3:02:59 AM PDT by THEUPMAN
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Buck Turgidson
DDT isn't coming back.

Don't bet on that...

7 posted on 09/24/2002 3:10:46 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: sarcasm
yeah - this is definitely par for the course...

I guess we need another great vaccine to solve this as well...

8 posted on 09/24/2002 3:58:45 AM PDT by krodriguesdc
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To: THEUPMAN
Everyone who minimized West Nile in the media should be hanged with piano wire from the nearest lamppost. It is already far deadlier than Eastern Equine Encephalitis. And the "it's only old people" drumbeat from the minimizers is just grotesque.

9 posted on 09/24/2002 4:05:30 AM PDT by eno_
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To: sarcasm
Interesting --- and scary.

These two diseases have a similar relationship to water.

The Polio bug could be found in water that was lying around. (I think I remember kids in the 3rd world could develop immunity to polio because they played in that contaminated water.)

Water also plays a role in West Nile--as the breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry it.

10 posted on 09/24/2002 4:23:57 AM PDT by syriacus
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To: sarcasm
stunned neurologists

The medications the man had received initially, Leis said, could have killed him

''I thought, `This is extremely unusual - this can't be,''' Leis said. ''How can a virus, in this case West Nile, change its clinical properties to such a marked degree? It had typically not presented this way.''

This information should be disseminated to anyone you know living in a WNV area. You'll notice the guy thinks it "can't be" because it hasn't "typically" presented "this way."

Trust me on this one, if we've got to rely on neurologists to diagnose this, we could be in big trouble. Doctors are going to have to think "outside the box" in order to diagnose this.

Ask anybody with MS about the diagnosis process and you'll know that neurologists can be "fence sitters" when it comes to making a diagnosis.

Should be interesting to watch this develop.

11 posted on 09/24/2002 4:27:59 AM PDT by dawn53
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To: backhoe
This is very frightening indeed. I care for a man who has been a quadraapeligic since 1959 due to polio. The fact that he is still alive is amazing. It is rare now days to meet someone who has been through this devastating illness.

I was speaking to my girlfriend in CO over the weekend and she said at her church she met a young woman in her late 30's who had contacted West Nile back east early this summer. She was there for prayer since she in now confined to a wheelchair and doctors have no idea if she will ever walk again. It seems that the medical profession has really been flying blind on this one. One would think that since West Nile is more common in other parts of the world these polio like symptoms would have been reported before now. It makes you wonder if this is really West Nile or a virus that has been altered.

12 posted on 09/24/2002 5:07:33 AM PDT by foolscap
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To: foolscap
An old friend of mine ( now deceased ) had polio as a child, long before vaccines existed... the first time I met him, when I was a tiny boy, I thought he was another child, his growth was so stunted. It's an awful disease.

Billy Tucker lived into his 70's, and did manage to support himself by running a telephone answering service- he trained himself to recall verbatim everything he heard. Truly remarkable!

Like you, I think there is reason to suspect a malign human hand behind this stuff...

13 posted on 09/24/2002 6:15:35 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: dawn53; sarcasm
"Trust me on this one, if we've got to rely on neurologists to diagnose this, we could be in big trouble. Doctors are going to have to think "outside the box" in order to diagnose this."

I'm worried about this. I have taken my 85 year old mother to the doctor twice already with muscle and joint pain, she was prescribed Vioxx the first time and had a bad reaction to it. (Same happened with my 74 year old aunt). She has been prescribed Lodine on the second visit. I have been experiencing unusual joint pain myself. I don't like this one bit.

Fox News reported once yesterday that there were six people in Mississippi who were paralyzed from WNV. (Something is going on)

14 posted on 09/24/2002 6:22:03 AM PDT by blam
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To: foolscap
I was speaking to my girlfriend in CO over the weekend and she said at her church she met a young woman in her late 30's who had contacted West Nile back east early this summer

a young mother in her 30's died in NJ (bergen county)of west nile (on her death certificate) this summer and i was shocked when this went completely unreported here. they are only reporting the elderly victims...

15 posted on 09/24/2002 6:22:36 AM PDT by Tiger28
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To: eno_
Everyone who minimized West Nile in the media....

It wasn't just the media. There is a large block right here on FR that will tell you it only kills birds and old sick folks. Not to worry, no big deal. If you show the increase in cases and increased severity, and you should never mention bio/chem weapons research by other nations..because then you are of course a tin-foiler.

16 posted on 09/24/2002 6:23:20 AM PDT by porte des morts
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To: porte des morts
It has spread to Canada too. Already a death or two and a handful infected. Plenty of minimizers in government, medicine and the media here.
17 posted on 09/24/2002 7:07:08 AM PDT by xp38
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To: sarcasm
Any bets on how bad WNV will be next year? Or worse, will we have gone through something to make us forget about the 'good old days' of WNV? (A smallpox attack, for example.)

What I can't figure is why WNV has been so mild in Connecticut -- only seven cases, and no deaths this year. We have plenty of mosquitoes, and plenty of carrier birds. Maybe we don't have a lot of the Culex mosquito.

I still believe my father contracted some form of encephalitis last year, from which he has never recovered. My guess was St. Louis encephalitis (he lived in Houston, about two blocks from one of the locations where a SLE-carrying mosquito was found). But it could well have been WNV. We may never know for sure what caused him to take ill the way he did.

18 posted on 09/24/2002 7:22:40 AM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: piasa
I think you might be confusing symptoms with cause. This article is rather confusing, but I read it to mean that "polio" is a generic term for any disease that causes paralysis by attacking nerve fibers.

Is there a doctor in the house?

20 posted on 09/24/2002 7:31:43 AM PDT by js1138
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