West Nile Virus 1

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Comment by Daniel on January 20, 2009 at 4:05am

That West Nile virus video is quite concerning - I get the impression, given the relatively recent introduction to the US, that it may simply have been a case of a stow away egg or mosquito on a traveller who got to the States and it bred more virus carrying offspring (I assume) - at any rate, it makes me wonder about the evolution of this virus in the future - could it adapt to be transmitted in other ways or adapt to cooler climates by the carrier adapting to that place? If it got to the US, then it could also go anywhere of presumably warmer climate - for me, I'd be concerned about Australia and then next door (here in New Zealand) - this video gives me the impression that it might not be long before this sort of thing, while not a pandemic, could nonetheless become a global concern.
I recall asking my doctor at a review in 2007 if I was immune to anything, he laughed (presumably because my exact, and poorly chosen words were "So, like, am I immune to anything cool now?", and he replied, "no" with a chuckle which made me feel a little small - if I had that moment over again I'd ask, "How has this virus made me susceptible to a relapse of encephalitis stemming from either a campilobacta infection or the bite of an insect, do I have any natural immunity to such things now?" - I think if I'd worded the question a little more like this then he may have taken me more seriously, but he was an arrogant man who I suspect enjoyed the mirror, so probably not.
Nevertheless, the encephalitis virus strikes me as the quiet achiever of the viral kingdom - while tv dwells on HIV, cancer and so forth - understandably so, given how predominant they now seem, viruses like encephalitis, which I'd never even heard of pre infection, continue to mingle around and ruin the occasional life of someone here and there - it's only when I consider that when compared to HIV or cancer, how obscure and down the list encephalitis is, that I see how far the human race truly is from gaining any sort of comfort zone with diseases : when we no longer worry about anything, and how at the mercy of something so small like being in the wrong place at the wrong time anyone of us can be as an encephalitis carrying mosquito buzzes past and decides to stop by on your arm for take aways, effectively ruining your life - other diseases which seemed more worth dwelling upon before that moment suddenly seem less worth worrying over from that point onward, and this is why I have a dim view of being treated in such a dismissive manner by my neurologist : he got to go home and live his normal life, get up the next day and treat people to the best of his abilities : I got to go home without knowing how long I'd feel stupified for - a little immature, but then he did seem to downplay this concern and disregard my obvious worries over the future.

From that moment, which I recall like it happened yesterday, I learned not to dismiss the words of others instantaneously and without first thinking about whether or not there is any less obvious but more useful idea to what anyone else says, and while the old me would have seen the above video and looked upon it with cinematic interest of a globally effecting viral outbreak, I'm now only concerned with what doctors and scientists are doing to prevent such things from happening in either an occasional and isolated capacity, or on a larger and post evolutionary level where many people are effected : lesson to me is - pay attention, don't dismiss what anything like this says and concentrate on how you can learn to best avoid such problems in the future : I begin by staying in a cooler climate like here, praying that preventative medicines and vaccines are soon discovered and that people like my old neurologist grow a more mature attitude towards the concerns of their patients.

Comment by Therese on August 31, 2007 at 12:40pm

Stephen, you are a doing a great job of posting these videos.

Thank you, Therese