This report is about a farm in Montana that has new epidemic that has spread to the owners of the farm and the horses; I have been assigned to characterize the epidemic and to decrease its spread to the nearby farms. By finding out the pathogen and source it will stop the spread of the virus and save the most lives.
The owner of the farm and some their workers have been showing signs of flu-like symptoms. Two of the workers are having symptoms of a more severe nature, gastric distress and altered mental status. The owner’s 60 year old mother has been hospitalized for severe altered mental status, vision loss and paralysis.
After assessing the people that have been affected and the symptoms that they have there is a high suspicion that the pathogen that we are dealing with in this epidemic is genus Flavivirus or better known as West Nile virus (WNV), a single strand RNA virus of the Flavivridae family. This virus uses mosquito as a vector which then bite an accidental host such as a human or horse and transmit the virus.
The virus is identified indeed as West Nile virus in the laboratory after a high index of suspicion of the symptoms of those affected with the virus. “Essentially all patients with neurologic involvement have detectable WNV-specific IgM in CSF; since IgM does not cross the …show more content…
Any stagnant water that is around the farm needs to be removed or treated, make sure that buckets of water are not sitting around and make sure that water does not collect in a particular place especially around the barn. Personal protection of humans that live on the farm would be to use insect repellent when going outdoors and to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants when in mosquito infected areas. Another safeguard, when disposing of dead birds or animals, gloves should be worn to not come into contact with the animal’s
The owner of the farm and some their workers have been showing signs of flu-like symptoms. Two of the workers are having symptoms of a more severe nature, gastric distress and altered mental status. The owner’s 60 year old mother has been hospitalized for severe altered mental status, vision loss and paralysis.
After assessing the people that have been affected and the symptoms that they have there is a high suspicion that the pathogen that we are dealing with in this epidemic is genus Flavivirus or better known as West Nile virus (WNV), a single strand RNA virus of the Flavivridae family. This virus uses mosquito as a vector which then bite an accidental host such as a human or horse and transmit the virus.
The virus is identified indeed as West Nile virus in the laboratory after a high index of suspicion of the symptoms of those affected with the virus. “Essentially all patients with neurologic involvement have detectable WNV-specific IgM in CSF; since IgM does not cross the …show more content…
Any stagnant water that is around the farm needs to be removed or treated, make sure that buckets of water are not sitting around and make sure that water does not collect in a particular place especially around the barn. Personal protection of humans that live on the farm would be to use insect repellent when going outdoors and to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants when in mosquito infected areas. Another safeguard, when disposing of dead birds or animals, gloves should be worn to not come into contact with the animal’s