west nile (Page 3)

A woman in Colorado says she contracted the West Nile virus through sexual contact with her infected husband. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no scientific evidence that West Nile can be transmitted sexually. However, there is evidence it can be spread through blood transfusions, organ donation and breast milk, click here, which all involve the exchange of bodily fluids.

Jennifer Lei, 42, accompanied her husband and 18-year-old son on a Labor Day hunting trip. She used bug repellant and left after a day. Edward and Jacob Lei came down with symptoms of West Nile a week later and tested positive for it. Jennifer tested positive several weeks later.
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Scientists have found West Nile virus in the breast milk of a new mother who has the infection, although her baby shows no symptoms of the disease. Researchers don’t know if the mother can pass the virus to her baby through her breast milk. The Michigan mother got a blood transfusion after giving birth, and may have caught West Nile that way. She and another patient, a liver transplant recipient, received blood from a common donor, and remaining blood samples from that donor show signs of West Nile.
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Pet owners are being told to make sure their dogs don?t get bitten by mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. An 8-year-old Irish setter-golden retriever mix died of a West Nile viral infection, becoming the first canine victim in the country. A young wolf in a zoo died of the same infection, and the virus has also affected hundreds of horses. Squirrels are coming down with the disease as well. The question is?can animals spread West Nile to people?
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Senator Patrick Leahy thinks the West virus that has killed 54 people this year may be a terrorist weapon. “I think we have to ask ourselves: Is it coincidence that we’re seeing such an increase in West Nile virus or is that something that’s being tested as a biological weapon against us?” says Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In May, an article in a respected medical journal suggested that Iraq may have unleashed the West Nile Virus in the United States via Cuba through the release of migratory birds infected with the virus (See May 17 news story “West Nile Bioterror from Cuba”, click here).
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