Sorry to say, but with all the hoopla on the radio and in the news the last few days, I can see a wonderful city losing convention business in a hurry. And tourist dollars. Justified? Probably not. If you’re a heathy individual, you probably can be infected and recover nicely. If you’re HIV, then I would say don’t go to that conference.
If I’ve put this in the wrong forumn, I apologize. If it’s been done, I’m sorry I didn’t see it.
I don’t think it’s mundane, but certainly doesn’t rise to a rant nor a debate.
Yeah, this is bad timing. Here in Memphis, We’ve got the 25th anniversary of Elvis’s death next Friday, which promises to be our biggest tourist draw ever.
I see probably three to five dead blue jays a day while walking my dog. Almost creepy.
Jackelope, just wait until you’ve been here 32 years.
We had a dead blue jay in my apartment parking lot yesterday. The manager and her son were standing over it, arguing over who would remove the poor little guy. Mom told son to pick it up, son was saying they needed to call animal control. Er, guys, you don’t call animal control for dead birds…
I’m pretty sure the whole thing is a conspiracy by Cheyenne, Wyoming, to steal the convention and tourism business from New Orleans. What do you think?
Actually, it can be a good idea to call someplace…a health department, maybe, about it. They can pick up the dead animal and determine what was the cause of its death. Then they can confirm that the West Nile virus is in the area, and be a bit more alert. It is possible, after all, that the dead blue jay died of a bunch other causes…
For other states, check out my Mosquito-borne Disease page. I need to change the Louisiana link to the one above (it’s been a while since I’ve updated that page - guess I better do that this weekend).
It’s very similar to the economy here in Colorado with the fires here. Several national newscasts said that “all of Colorado is burning” when we had the Hayman, the Coal Seam and the Missionary fires burning at the same time.
All HUGE news here locally but the national media made it to be that we were closed for business. Several small Mom and Pop businesses have reportedly had to close up shop because the lack of tourists. Tourism is a huge chunk of change for Colorado.
The media needs to report things but they need to do it responsibly.
Oh and our local news hopped on the West Nile Virus story too. Stating that if it weren’t for our drought, we’d have it here too. Well, we have bubonic plague, Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever, etc…but we live with that day in and day out here. Although, when they do find a prairie dog colony with bubonic, it makes local news but more for a public service to keep people and animals out of those areas that have been affected.
Shit, we are probably more likely to die from falling in the shower than we are from being killed by West Nile.
Oh and don’t forget the E-coli scares this summer. 22 people here were affected by that and to the best of my recollection, only one person died.
What a dangerous world we live in eh?
Everyone will soon be afraid to step out their door.
West Nile virus is an Old World flavivirus, similar enough to St. Louis Encephalitis virus to cross-react. It is an arbovirus, meaning that it has an insect vector (mosquitoes) and vertebrate hosts (primarily birds). It is an emerging disease in the Western Hemisphere, first appearing in the New York metro area in 1999. It has spread to the southern US states and recently to the midwest, possibly through migrant birds. Horses and humans are dead-end hosts, meaning they (we) don’t make enough virus to act as a vertebrate host to the virus. It causes flu-like symptoms in very mild cases, but more severe cases involve encephalitis and possibly death. Apparent mortality rates in humans range about 5 to 12 percent, but seroprevalance studies indicate that much more of the general public can be exposed to the virus without any symptoms. Greatest risks appear to be those with compromised immune systems (the elderly, for example). The interest in corvids (crows, jays, magpies, and ravens) is that they show extremely high mortality rates, often approaching 100 percent, and are thus often the first indication of virus in the area.
Other arboviruses that affect the US include Eastern and Western Equine encephalitis (EEE is particularly nasty), La Cross, and SLE. It seems apparent that West Nile will become established and be part of the general arboviral background that we all live in.
Not all mosquitoes carry West Nile and not all that have been found to carry the virus are competent transmitters. Controlling mosquitoes around your environs (changing bird bath water once a week, cleaning gutters, etc) will further reduce your risk. If you live near an area that produces a lot of mosquitoes, contact your local mosquito control agency so they can monitor mosquito populations and possibly take control measures (larviciding, pupaciding, or, as a last resort, adulticiding).
Nothing pisses me off worse (other than the myriad of other stupid calls I get, of course) than for some stupid @#$% to call and say, “I found a dead bird…”.