Ridecamp: [RC] WNV in Colo - Rant Warning

Those last few paragraphs are SOOOO worth reading carefully.

 All the pet lists have their knickers in a knot over WNV to the extent that
I almost automatically delete when I see it in a subject line. Please
people, stop and think sometimes how things look to the rest of the world.
Here is the US with vets dashing about (making big bucks for Fort Dodge with
an unproven vaccine, BTW...not to mention the house call to administer)
vaccinating every horse in sight and people going ballistic over whether or
not one dog has been infected, and I'm living in a country where not only is
the disease EVERYWHERE but you can't even get tested for it. I love my
horses as much as the next person and my 14 dogs too. As my family will
testify, there's more money spent on food for animals in my household than
there is on food for people.

I don't vaccinate my horses for WNV. I don't see why I should pay to be a
guinea pig for Fort Dodge (a perfectly decent pharmaceutical company whose
canine vaccines I do use regulary).  I see more horses dropping dead here
from improper and over-feeding (among the wealthy) than from WNV. The media
need to do a SERIOUS reality check. For what it's probably cost to test all
those crows, we could have built a couple of good clinics and stocked and
staffed them for a year. We live in a biosphere with all sorts of life
forms, including WNV. Just because it's become a media pet, doesn't make it
the monster from the black lagoon or something. Chill.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net


``This has been something we have known is coming,'' said Dr. Ned Calonge,
the state's acting chief medical officer. ``Even with the presence of the
virus in our state, the chances of any one person becoming seriously ill is
remote.''

The virus was first detected in the United States in 1999. From that year
through 2001, the CDC confirmed 149 human cases and 18 deaths.

Most people who get it see mild flulike symptoms, or no symptoms at all. But
it can cause encephalitis, a potentially fatal swelling of the brain,
especially in older people and people with weakened immune systems.

On the Net:
State health department: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov
08/15/02 19:33 EDT



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