Jim, perhaps you could let us know if this is for real or if it is just another scare tactic.
Personally, I have a very difficult time believing that an infected bird is bitten by a certain type of mosquito, then this same little bugger bites a human... and transfers some virus from the infected bird..
(This defies all logic, but whatever...)
The US state of Texas is battling an outbreak of the West Nile virus, with 17 deaths being blamed on the mosquito-borne disease, authorities said Wednesday.
Throughout the state, 381 people have been sickened since the start of the year, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
"Texas is on track to have the most cases of West Nile illness since the disease first emerged in the state in 2002," it said in a statement.
The county incorporating Dallas, the ninth-largest city in the United States, has been the hardest hit, prompting the mayor to declare a local state of disaster.
"The City of Dallas is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile virus and has caused and appears likely to continue to cause widespread and severe illness and loss of life," Mayor Michael Rawlings said in the proclamation of emergency that takes effect Wednesday.
The virus has claimed ten lives in the county so far, local health authorities said. State officials put the toll at nine.
First discovered in Uganda in 1937, the virus is carried by birds and spread to humans by mosquitoes.
Severe symptoms can include high fever, vision loss and paralysis, while milder manifestations of the virus can range from headaches to skin rashes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Tuesday 693 cases -- both confirmed and probable -- of the virus have been reported country-wide so far this year, including 26 deaths. Texas tops the list of both cases and fatalities.
In 2011, Texas saw a total of 27 cases and two deaths, the CDC said. Country-wide, 712 confirmed and probable cases and 43 fatalities were reported over that 12-month period.
Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told AFP that the outbreak could be linked to a mild winter and rainy spring in the state.
But "it's really not clear at this point," she said.
In an effort to stem the number of new infections, Texas authorities have urged residents to use insect repellent before heading outdoors, remain inside at dusk and at dawn, dress in protective clothing and drain standing water that could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Last month, officials in New York City said the West Nile virus had been detected on Staten Island, one of the city's five boroughs.
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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)
So far, West Nile has been mostly northern TX near Dallas / Fort Worth. Too windy here. Too dry too. Although I suppose Lake Travis could support breeding. It is said that the lake, which is actually a dammed up river in several places, is too fast moving and rises and falls too much. I don't get out much. 100 degrees is too much for me. At 10pm it is still 90 degrees.
But I am hearing the same as you from the media. I guess if a virus is small enough, if could be transfer via mosquito or tic. Remember SARS - bird flu? Swine flu?
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- Jim
"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something." �Wilson Mizner
So far, West Nile has been mostly northern TX near Dallas / Fort Worth. Too windy here. Too dry too. Although I suppose Lake Travis could support breeding. It is said that the lake, which is actually a dammed up river in several places, is too fast moving and rises and falls too much. I don't get out much. 100 degrees is too much for me. At 10pm it is still 90 degrees.
But I am hearing the same as you from the media. I guess if a virus is small enough, if could be transfer via mosquito or tic. Remember SARS - bird flu? Swine flu?
Something is a little fishy about these viruses as well..
As far as West Nile is concerned, if I understand correctly, it is only a specific mosquito that carries this alleged virus, and only the females. Also if I understand correctly, these mosquitoes live only a couple of weeks (as adults) then they die.
I was also under the assumption that texas was rather dry this year, and had more of an issue with fires than mosquitoes..
I realize that mosquitoes are responsible for Malaria and several "fevers", however, biting a sick bird then a human is a little "out there" for me to believe, considering there must be a reason or cause for the birds to have this so-called virus in the first place..
Something is a little fishy about these viruses as well..
As far as West Nile is concerned, if I understand correctly, it is only a specific mosquito that carries this alleged virus, and only the females. Also if I understand correctly, these mosquitoes live only a couple of weeks (as adults) then they die.
I was also under the assumption that texas was rather dry this year, and had more of an issue with fires than mosquitoes..
I realize that mosquitoes are responsible for Malaria and several "fevers", however, biting a sick bird then a human is a little "out there" for me to believe, considering there must be a reason or cause for the birds to have this so-called virus in the first place..
Lots of insects have very short life spans.
Only the female bites; they need the blood for the eggs.
If it's not sensational or inflammatory, it's not news worthy. Facts and news seldom travel on the same path, even on the odd chance the journalist is trying to get it right.
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I'd rather meander for the prevention than race for the cure.
I would like to know more about those 17 deaths. It seems to me that in SOME cases it isn't always the virus that causes the death but possibly the choice of CARE - whether it be side effect from medication(s), a pre-existing condition that rendered the victim incapable of fighting off ANY virus, or the overall health of the person that died.
I also wonder if ANYONE keeps record of increase of illness AFTER the spray? Or death increases due to the spray?
I also believe - the cynic in me - that much of the recorded info is either poorly collected - or just plain UNTRUTHS just to give reason to spray.
After what I went thru with our Dept of Natural Resource and their determination to dump GALLONS of PESTICIDE by a CROP DUSTER on OUR TOWN without so much as notifying the Town Board of it's possible harm to some residents - I came away knowing there are MILLIONS of dollars in the spray projects. DNR will DO ANYTHING to keep THEIR PAYCHECKS coming. And to drive in those nice moder black suvs. With their brand new lap tops. ETC.
I doubt spraying does any real good. But I must admit our butterfly numbers have taken a devastating hit since the spray last year. We did not even have an ISSUE with the gypsy moth, nor do we have large numbers of trees to protect. No, this was to slow the moth, that is known to destroy white oak trees on the east coast. oy
At what cost, really - to humans, the environment?
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Eventually we will find (mostly in retrospect, of course) that we can be very grateful to those people who have made life most difficult for us.
(NaturalNews) Now that Dallas officials have decided West Nile Disease has killed 14 people in the area and infected 557 more, the aerial spraying of a pesticide called Duet will begin. The objective? Wipe out mosquitoes that carry the virus.
But here's the bombshell: there is no evidence that the supposed virus causing West Nile exists. This means there is no proof West Nile disease exists.
And this fact has been known for years. Scientists don't like to talk about it. It's extremely embarrassing.
The West Nile virus has never been isolated. "Isolated" means discovered. This is a simple notion. Just as you can ask whether an explorer on a ship, journeying to the tip of South America, ever arrived, you can ask whether researchers ever found the West Nile virus.
The answer is no.
Researchers state the virus in question is 0.04 micrometers. At the same time, they admit that the original fishing expedition for the virus employed filters that were 0.22 micrometers. The obvious conclusion? You cannot assume that whatever was trapped in the filter was West Nile virus. The filter was too porous. It was nearly six times larger than the virus.
In fact, Robert McLean, director of the National Wildlife Center of the US Geological Survey, told ABC's Nick Regush, "We don't have a purified form of the [West Nile] virus."
A stunning admission.
The late ABC reporter, Regush, one of the few bright and independent minds in mainstream medical reporting, followed up on McLean's pronouncement with this: "I find no evidence anywhere in the scientific literature that the rules of virus purification and isolation were thoroughly followed [in the case of the West Nile virus]."
The bottom line? In your search for a new virus, if you don't purify the material in which you suspect the virus is contained and filter out everything except the virus, and if you don't finally isolate it, you cannot claim to have located it at all. This is not a mere academic distinction.
Two questions immediately pop up. How are people being diagnosed with West Nile if the virus has never been proved to exist; and what is making people sick if not West Nile?
The answer to the first question is: antibody tests. These extremely unreliable diagnostic tests are indirect. They supposedly show that elements of the patient's immune system have encountered, in this case, the West Nile virus, in the patient's body.
But antibody tests can and do register positive for irrelevant reasons. It's called cross-reaction. The test is pinging positive because other germs or debris in the patient's blood have caused the sensitive material in the test to respond.
It's a notorious fact in the case of HIV, for example. In the early 1990s, independent journalist Christine Johnson published a report showing that the HIV test could read falsely positive for 60 reasons---none of them having anything to do with HIV. Other researchers followed suit.
West correlated clusters of human and bird "West Nile" cases with several factors; among them, nearby polluting oil refineries, other air pollution (certainly exacerbated by hot summer weather), and the presence of toxic MTBE, an additive that makes gasoline in cars burn cleaner.
Citizens of Dallas should take a clue from Jim West's work and examine their own environment for these factors.
There are listings for at least eight refineries in the Dallas area. There are also reports of increased air pollution coming from natural gas production in the Barnett Shale. The 2012 summer has been hot. As of of the year 2000, Texas refineries were producing 75% of all the MTBE in the United States.
Now that 20 states have banned or reduced use of MTBE, the domestic market has declined. However, there are new horizons for the chemical: China wants it. The Huntsman Corporation, which owns one of the largest MTBE-producing plants in the US, in Texas, has signed a licensing and production agreement with the Chinese chemical company, Yantai Wanhua.
How embarrassing would it be for Huntsman's burgeoning business if, in its own Texas backyard, MTBE was found to be contributing to illness and death?
Much easier to blame it on a virus that has never been found. And much easier if other Texas sources of air pollution are also let off the hook.
West Nile was just reported near us in Idaho... so my husband is getting all freaked about mosiquito control around our ponds... As it stands I dont let local mosquito spraying on our property..
We have mms so Im not too worried and I will be looking into natural ways to deter mosquitos in our pond. Mosquitos can spread much more than west nile... they can spread Lyme
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Read them and explore MMS and CS.
It may be the best chance that you have to heal yourself
West Nile in Texas
Great! The dots are coming together. Is it a Monsanto product? 
Eventually we will find (mostly in retrospect, of course) that we can be very grateful to those people who have made life most difficult for us. 
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