This weekend I was at work at the hospital. One of the on-call physicians came in to our work room. I was sitting with two doctors and two other nurses. The doctor excitedly said.."Did you all hear about the suspected case of West Nile Virus--it may already be in California!".
With relief I wiped my brow and replied,"Whew! I am so glad I got my horses vaccinated..they are all done!"
The doctors all looked at me...."Uh, there is a vaccine for horses?"
"Yes, and it's supposedly a very good one. I am so glad that I don't have to worry."
"But people can still get it".
"But my HORSES are vaccinated. I can wear bug spray. Oh...why isn't there a human vaccine, if so many horses have been successfully vaccinated?"
"Regulations. The FDA"
"Why? The animal testing is all done."
"What animal testing?"
"The horses!"
"It takes time. Years. Legal regulations".
"Well at least the horses are safe. What about if we catch WNV? Are there drugs to treat it..like Acyclovir or something?"
"No ".
"Oh..... Well...the horses are all vaccinated!"
"Yes! Isn't that good!".
Hmmm. I've been thinking about our conversation. It just shows how there are such big differences between the medical community and the "agricultural" community...to put it all in a basket. Here the horses are happily enjoying their immune response, the veterinarians and horse owners all taking action, educated on the problem, watching the progress...while human doctors are nervously sitting on their hands. Isn't that sad? ( Too bad we can't try some of that WNV vaccine on ourselves...I wonder if anyone in the USA has been nervous enough about WNV to do that little experiment... a la Louis' Pastuer?)
Beth Glover
