State declines to test West Nile sufferer

A Lawrence businessman stung by symptoms of West Nile virus is frustrated that state health officials won’t take up his case.

Mark Zwahl said that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had declined to test his blood for evidence of West Nile infection.

Had Zwahl’s infection been confirmed by the state, it would have been Douglas County’s first official West Nile virus infection in a human this year.

Zwahl, who said tests by his doctor revealed the infection last week, remains convinced that the pounding headaches, deep backaches, muscle tightness and overall disorientation he’d been suffering for more than a week had come from the bite of an infected mosquito.

But as he recovers, Zwahl said, he’s even more pained by the state’s unwillingness to spread information that could boost awareness among people who are particularly susceptible to the malady that already has killed one Kansan and led to severe illness in at least 16 others.

The virus is transmitted by infected mosquitoes, whose bites lead to severe illness in one of every 150 people infected.

“The impression is it’s a weird thing and nobody gets it, and so people don’t worry about it,” Zwahl said. “I worry about it, and I can’t help but worry about the elderly people and other people who could be in trouble.”

Zwahl’s symptoms weren’t severe enough to meet the testing standards established by KDHE and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sharon Watson, a KDHE spokeswoman.

To be tested, Watson said, a person must be suffering from the most severe symptoms of West Nile encephalitis (swelling of the brain) or meningitis (swelling of the lining of the brain).

Zwahl’s complaints fit with such symptoms, Watson said, but the most severe cases also typically include stiffening of the neck or extremities, often to the point of paralysis.

“In the very severe cases, these people can’t even walk into the emergency room,” Watson said.

The reasons for testing only the most severe cases are twofold, she said:

  • Resources. Each state test costs $50, and the state could be asked to conduct hundreds or even thousands of tests. The department thus far has received $300,000 from the CDC this year to address West Nile, tasks that reach beyond testing and into surveillance of mosquitoes, birds and animals and for running public awareness campaigns.
  • Usefulness. With no cure and no effective treatment for West Nile infection, testing for the virus is reserved for cases only in which determining the exact cause of symptoms could make a difference in diagnosis and a medical approach to dealing with it.

“We recognize that everyone wants to have all the information possible about their specific health condition, but, from a resource standpoint, it would be very difficult to test all those cases that doctors are presented with,” Watson said. “From what we hear from doctors throughout the state, they are seeing a lot of individuals who have West Nile virus symptoms and have indications they have been bitten by mosquitoes, and then they’re seeing the headache and fever and discomfort and muscle aches in the following days. So, for us to test all of those cases, it would really tax our resources.”

The virus is named after the West Nile region of Uganda, where the virus was first identified in 1937. The virus first came to the United States in 1999, when 62 cases and seven deaths were confirmed in the New York City area.