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CNN Saturday Morning News

West Nile Epidemic Gets Worse

Aired August 17, 2002 - 07:37   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The West Nile epidemic is getting worse, becoming more deadly, spreading toward the West. The mosquito- born disease has now claimed 11 lives in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Illinois this year and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 251 human cases have been reported across the country.
CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from Washington to talk about all of this. Hello, Elizabeth, good to see you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. Miles, this all...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Oh, you're going to...

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: I'm sorry...

O'BRIEN: You're going to say something -- first, I have a quick question.

COHEN: Oh, go ahead. Quick question; ask away.

O'BRIEN: I want to begin on a personal note, our producer Kim Underwood (ph) isn't here this morning, and she's -- felt kind of flu- like, without congestion -- and, immediately everybody said, oh, gosh, it could be West Nile. And, I suppose that sort of conversation and that little anecdote is being played out over and over again all across this country right now. What is a person to do?

COHEN: Oh, absolutely, I mean, that is being played out. I heard from Kim, and then I heard from friend of mine whose 5-year-old daughter has 100 degree temperature, she's like, oh, my God, could it be West Nile? And that is playing out everywhere.

First of all, I want to say -- and we'll get to more of this later. Really, the chances are that it is not West Nile. The overwhelming chances are that it is not West Nile, but of course, we're talking about it on the news, so everyone thinks of that first.

There are things that you can actually do. You can go to your doctor, just go to your doctor. There are things that he or she can look for to try to differentiate between West Nile and the run of the mill bug that everyone gets. So, there are things that you can do, if you're worried, you don't have to just sit at home and worry, you can share your worry with your doctor.

Now, actually, Miles, let's talk a little bit about prevention. I have here a couple of different mosquito repellents and we can talk about what kinds of repellents one needs to use. There are kinds that have DEET -- these two have DEET in them, and what you want to do is you want to look in the ingredients and what you're looking for is something with at least 35 percent DEET. If it has more than 50 percent DEET, not necessary. This little guy over here is 95 percent DEET. That's OK, it's not going to hurt you, necessarily, but it's just unnecessary.

Now, this one over here apparently does not have DEET in it, and so what that means is you probably don't want to use that. The CDC says look for DEET. Kinds that don't have DEET are not as useful.

And, DEET is kind of an interesting thing. What it does is the mosquitoes get near you, they detect the DEET and it doesn't kill them but they get kind of confused, it's kind of like they get drunk, and so they can't land on you and they can't actually bite you.

Now, let's go back again and talk about why this isn't as scary as it seems. We have some numbers that explain what the risk is of getting West Nile. If an infected mosquito bites you, you only have only one out of five infected people get mild flu-like symptoms. So, if you're bit, only one out of five people even get a little bit sick and only one out of 150 get the dreaded encephalitis or meningitis.

Now let's talk a little bit about some of these mild symptoms that people get. People get fever, people get headaches, people get body aches, and occasionally they get a rash on the trunk and swollen lymph nodes. And, you might be saying to yourself, well, gosh that sounds like every run of the mill virus. Again, if you're worried, go see your doctor. There are things that he or she can check for. And, if they suspect that maybe it is West Nile, there is blood work that they can do to really say whether or not it is -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, one quick question for you. I went out and bought one of those fancy mosquito machines, you know?

COHEN: Right. Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Really expensive item. I think I've caught about ten mosquitoes. I think it's about $250 a mosquito. Are they worth getting? I -- I know you're not a consumer reporter but have you heard much about these things, or is that just part of the whole kind of mentality here of not really paying attention as to like the statistical risks and perhaps listening too much of the likes of me?

COHEN: Absolutely. Instead of listening to Miles O'Brien, you should listen to the Centers for Disease Control. And you can go...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: I set you up; you knock it out of the park, don't you? COHEN: That's right, you made it so easy, Miles. The CDC says mosquito repellent with DEET is really, truly, the only way to go as far as what you can actually go out and buy.

Other things you can do are very simple. Make sure that all of the screens in your house, that they don't have holes in them. Make sure that if you have little pools of standing water, for example, a toy gathers water outside in the back yard. Get rid of that water, it becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. If you have a little baby because little babies are not supposed to be using mosquito repellent, put a netting around their infant carrier, that can help. And, by the way, if you're buying mosquito repellent for children, then it should be 10 percent DEET and no higher than 10 percent.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much, as always, for putting this into perspective. It sometimes seems as if the risk in inversely proportional to the media coverage. But, nevertheless, here we are talking about West Nile virus because it is a bona fide story. Thanks very much, we'll see you a little later, OK?

COHEN: Exactly. Bye-bye.

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