- A ProMED-mail post
- www.promedmail.org
- ProMED-mail is a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
- www.isid.org
- Date: Thu 7 Aug 2003
- From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org
- Source: Casper Star Tribune, Associated Press report,
Thu 7 Jul 2003
- [edited]
- <http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=118180
- Colorado: 101 Cases of Undiagnosed Meningitis Reported
during July
-
- Even as West Nile virus infection cases rise in Colorado,
state health officials are investigating an unknown virus that causes strikingly
similar symptoms in people. Health officials said most cases of the new
virus are mild, but it can cause [aseptic] meningitis. The virus has hit
hundreds of people along the Front Range, said Dr. Ken Gershman, chief
of the state's communicable disease program. He did not have a specific
number because the state is not tracking the virus.
-
- 8 samples taken from patients were sent for analysis
this week to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta. Patients with the suspected virus can suffer symptoms nearly identical
to those afflicted with potentially deadly West Nile virus, including a
rash. Other symptoms include headache, muscle soreness and low-grade fever,
all of which can be West Nile virus infection symptoms.
-
- Dr. Adrienne LeBailly, director of the Larimer County
health department, is working with state officials and the CDC to identify
the virus. She said it is probably transmitted by fecal matter, unlike
mosquito-borne West Nile. It also could be transmitted through respiratory
secretions such as saliva or nasal mucus. The virus is not at this time
considered a public health threat, LeBailly said. Gershman said the number
of non-West Nile virus-associated meningitis cases is at a record level
in Colorado. There were 101 cases diagnosed in July 2003, the most the
state has seen since at least 1996, when a new tracking system was introduced.
The previous high was 68 in July 2001.
-
- --
- ProMED-mail
- <promed@promedmail.org
-
- [Aseptic (viral) meningitis is normally associated with
enteroviral infection. During the early part of 2003 outbreaks of viral
meningitis have been reported from Georgia in the south and Washington
(State) in the northwest. Echovirus 9 and echovirus 30 have been identified
as etiologic agents. - Mod.CP]
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
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- Zhan le De vlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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