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20 Ellul 5760 - Setpember 20, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

Diplomate, Board Certification of Emergency Medicine

Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine Ma'ayenei Hayeshua Hospital

It was August of last year. Two patients in the city of New York come in to the hospital unconscious. Tests are done, specialists are called in but the patients never recover consciousness.

The prestigious Center for Disease Control in Atlanta is called in and makes a startling discovery: a virus previously unknown to Western world had arrived to the shores of New York. Called the West Nile virus, common in Egypt, it usually is the cause of an illness of malaise, sever headache, eye pain, and abrupt high fever. However in the elderly and the very young the course of the illness is a lot more serious and can cause encephalitis, that is inflammation of the brain, which often results in death.

This caused the Americans to take the disease very seriously; but this horrible virus was not finished yet. In Israel this year, the virus has made a major appearance. As of the writing of this column, the virus has caused 120 hospitalizations and over 20 deaths. There is, as of now, no accepted treatment, so this is causing much concern. We cannot be sure it won't hit the European continent as it did in the U.S.A.

The problem is that this virus is spread through mosquitoes. Countries with sanitation problems and areas of still, fouled water have serious problems with mosquitoes. Destroying them with pesticides that do not endanger the environment is not simple and often expensive. In Israel, they often use kerosene which was the cause of deaths of the athletes who fell in the Yarkon river during the 1997 Maccabiah games.

Let's speak about you. Until the cooler weather sets in, this epidemic is likely to continue. The Ministry of Health does recommend that elderly people who go outside should wear mosquito repellent. Windows should be closed at night or screens should be used.

Assumedly, babies should follow the same guidelines. Check their rooms before they go to sleep: mosquitoes like to congregate around lights and on widows. I have found that using a damp towel and throwing it at the mosquitoes on the ceiling is effective and does not leave any residue behind.

Let us daven that we all stay health. Write me in care of the Yated.

A Message from Glaxo, sponsor of this column: Glaxo would like me to remind you about Lamictal, their product for problem seizures. Seizures can often be controlled with less powerful medications, but if not Lamictal may be the solution. Speak with your neurologist.

 

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