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American Morning

Interveiw with David Hood, Douglas Easterbrook

Aired August 05, 2002 - 07:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The governor in the state of Louisiana declaring a state of emergency as health officials try to stop a deadly outbreak of the West Nile Virus. Four people so far have died in that state from the mosquito borne illness. More than 50 others are ill and dozens of additional cases are suspected.
This morning from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, David Hood, secretary of health and hospitals for the state, and a victim of the virus, Douglas Easterbrook, is our guest, as well.

Gentlemen, good morning to you.

DOUGLAS EASTERBROOK, WEST NILE VICTIM: Good morning, sir.

SECRETARY. DAVID HOOD, LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS: Good morning.

HEMMER: Mr. Easterbrook, so many of us are so unfamiliar with West Nile Virus. But certainly your case is very different. Go back a few weeks. Do you remember when you were stung by a mosquito?

EASTERBROOK: No, sir. I do not.

HEMMER: Do you remember the symptoms, how they came on and what did you feel, sir?

EASTERBROOK: My first symptoms was I was asleep. It was about two o'clock in the morning. And I woke up with probably the worst, or a very severe chill. I dreamed I had fell into a river of ice and water. And I woke my wife up to try to get me warm. That's my first knowing of it.

HEMMER: Did you go to the hospital right away?

EASTERBROOK: No, sir. It was about five days later before I actually went to the hospital.

HEMMER: And during that time did you still have the chills or did you experience other things?

EASTERBROOK: I got rid of that chill that night and the rest of the night was OK and the next day was like a Thursday, I guess. I had a good day Thursday, maybe just a touch of fever or something, but I really didn't feel bad. And Friday I had more chills and the fever started Friday. I went to some birthday parties on Saturday. Sunday I went to church, but Sunday afternoon I came down with a rash over my body. And it was -- I didn't have any Benadryl so I went to the drug store, Wal-Mart, and bought a bottle of Benadryl, because I thought maybe I had eaten something that gave me a rash.

The only thing I'd had up to that time was chills and some fever and the rash. And then...

HEMMER: So you go to the hospital -- just to put this on a bit of a fast forward base here -- you go to the hospital. How long did it take doctors there to diagnose your condition?

EASTERBROOK: Well, I went to two different hospitals. The first hospital could not really help me and they transferred me to a bigger hospital in Baton Rouge. And I think, you know, they have to do a spinal tap and send it off for results. And it took about three or four days for the results to come back before they actually knew that I had West Nile Virus.

HEMMER: What are you feeling today? What are the lingering effects?

EASTERBROOK: Like vertigo. I have a hard time with my balance.

HEMMER: Wow.

Secretary Hood, what are you telling the people in your taste on how they can protect themselves and what possibly the state can even do at this point?

HOOD: Well, we've declared war on mosquitoes here in Louisiana and we're trying to enlist all our citizens into the fight against mosquitoes. What that means is taking personal precautions such as wearing insect repellant and also getting rid of any standing water on their property.

HEMMER: The state of New York had an outbreak last summer. Have you learned anything from New York or other parts of the country?

HOOD: Well, actually, I think the big outbreak was in 1999 in New York. And since then it's been moving south. We certainly were expecting it here in Louisiana and we were also prepared for it. We began to do surveillance activities on birds and mosquitoes as long ago as March and April of this year and directing our spraying to those areas where it would do the most good.

HEMMER: There are 34 suspected cases right now under investigation. Can you confirm whether or not any of these 34 have been upgraded to West Nile Virus?

HOOD: We're still in the confirmatory process right now and I can't say how many are going to be confirmed, actually. But I expect that we're going to see another significant increase, probably within the next 24 hours.

HEMMER: Given that answer, then, as a state, do you feel you're ahead of the game, behind the game or somewhere in the middle or you're...

HOOD: I think we were better prepared than most states would have been and I think that for the most part we're ahead of the game. In other words, it could have been much worse if we had not started early in our surveillance activities.

HEMMER: We're going to talk with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a moment here to learn a little bit more about why the elderly are so susceptible to this. Before we do that, Mr. Easterbrook, one more time here, if you could. For those out there who are trying to avoid something that you fell into, what would you tell them today?

EASTERBROOK: I would tell everyone don't stop going outside just because I have the West Nile Virus or because the mosquitoes are out there. But take the necessary precautions and go outside and dump all your standing water, the water under the plants. If you have old tires or tubs or whatever, get rid of the water outside. And if there are mosquitoes out there, see if you can get mosquito spray and spray them. But make sure you put it on yourself before you go outside.

HEMMER: I think it's excellent advice.

To Secretary Hood, in the few seconds we have left here, mosquitoes were everywhere in your state. They're like ants. How do you fight that battle?

HOOD: Well, by trying to get the message out to every citizen in the state. We have four and a half million people in Louisiana. We've got a media campaign going to alert them to the danger and telling them what to do about it. So I think we're just going to hammer that home and we're going to continue our spraying activities and our surveillance activities.

HEMMER: All right, Secretary David Hood down there in Louisiana, Douglas Easterbrook, a victim, too. Hey, take care of your health, OK, Mr. Easterbrook? And thanks for sharing your story.

EASTERBROOK: Thank you, sir. Have a great day.

HEMMER: All right, good deal.

He's Daryn now with more on this -- Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you mentioned our good doctor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

HEMMER: Yes.

KAGAN: He's standing by in Atlanta. Let's bring him in -- Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: I imagine you were able to listen in to Douglas Easterbrook. He was talking about his symptoms of West Nile Virus -- chills, fever and a rash. How typical does that sound for West Nile?

GUPTA: Well, you know, certainly one percent of the people who get West Nile Virus are going to have those sort of flu-like symptoms to start, just what he mentioned, basically, flu-like symptoms, sometimes a rash, sometimes some swelling of the lymph glands. One percent of those people, Daryn, going to have more severe symptoms. It sounds like he was starting to describe those, as well. And what those are going to be are the encephalitis type symptoms. That's when you're going to have the high fevers, the significant chills, sometimes disorientation. And then you could actually get severe headaches, which can lead to real problems with the brain.

It sounds like he was sort of bordering on that and it was treated successfully, in his case. But that can be a real problem sometimes, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, is one of the problems getting it identified? He said you have to have a spinal tap in order for doctors to be sure that it's not just a case of the flu but something much more serious.

GUPTA: That's right. The big thing about West Nile Virus, it actually multiplies several times in your bloodstream and the one thing it does that's sort of unusual, it actually crosses into the brain area through the blood-brain barrier, it's called.

Now, once it gets there, it causes this meningitis. The way to identify it is just as Mr. Easterbrook said. You actually have to collect some of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord and find the presence of that virus within the fluid. You have to do that by sending it off for a test. There isn't much to actually do in terms of combating the virus at that point. You just have to basically support the patient with fluids and make sure that they don't get any worse.

KAGAN: Well, and Bill thought of a good point, that this seems to, is it, that it's targeting the elderly or it's just when they get it, they are not able to fight against it as much so we hear more about their deaths?

GUPTA: That's right. I mean certainly as everyone said, mosquitoes are everywhere. The elderly are probably getting bit just as much as anybody else. The big thing with the elderly is that they have a harder time fighting off the particular virus, just like people with weakened immune systems, people with coronary artery disease, people with diabetes, all these folks are going to have a harder time sort of fighting off the West Nile Virus.

But, again, to reiterate the statistics, only one percent of the mosquitoes, even in West Nile Virus areas, have the West Nile Virus. Only one percent of the people that get bit are going to have any symptoms whatsoever. And of the people that get symptoms, only about a percent of them are going to develop the very serious encephalitis type symptoms that we've been hearing so much about.

KAGAN: So that's the good news, that the numbers are kind of small. Still, it's something you want to avoid. We heard Douglas Easterbrook give some tips that he's doing around his house. Anything else you can add to that?

GUPTA: Well, I think it's both a community and an individual responsibility. Communities certainly need to get rid of the mosquitoes. Individuals, you've got to be careful when you're going out at night. Wear the mosquito repellant DEET, 35 percent. Anything more than 35 percent doesn't offer any additional benefit. But certainly just the common sensical, as you can see there, type maneuvers to try and get the mosquito bites down.

KAGAN: All right, well, we focused on the elderly. You're going to come back in the next hour and talk about two special little baby girls.

GUPTA: I will, yes. A good story.

KAGAN: Tell us what it is.

GUPTA: Oh, it's conjoined twins. And this operation is going to be a, it's a very rare operation basically to try and separate two babies, 1-year-old, that are separated -- that are connected right now at the head. They're going to try and separate them through a pretty intricate neurosurgical procedure. I'll tell you a lot about it.

KAGAN: And who better than our own resident neurosurgeon to explain what needs to take place?

In Los Angeles, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: It's good seeing you.

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