CC#2: West Nile Cases STILL Rising?

In a recent article by Steven Reinberg, a HealthDay Reporter, entitled "West Nile Cases Still Rising; Death Toll Now At 134," Reinberg informs his readers of two purposes in writing this article: 1) the increase of death rates and 2) the worst outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease ever to hit the United States.

The West Nile virus, a deadly disease formed in Africa, was reported on Wednesday, September 5 of new cases involving 3,142 people and 134 deaths.  The cases were further classified into two types of diseases. According to the CDC, about fifty-two percent (1,630 individuals) had neuroinvasive disease and the other forty-eight percent (1,512 individuals) had non-neuroinvasive disease.

The West Nile virus?! I thought the virus was only in Africa?!

The virus was the worst outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease ever to hit the United States, one of the healthiest environments in the world.  Every state had a report of the West Nile virus in an individual. Sixty-six percent of the human cases have been reported from seven different states: California, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas.  Nearly forty percent of all cases have been reported in Texas alone! 

I could connect to the mosquito-type situation because I woke up one day full of mosquito bites in Nigeria, fearing that I caught some type of disease.  Humans in the biblical era suffered form the 10 Plagues of Egypt and humans in the Late Middle Ages suffered from the Bubonic plague, relating to the West Nile virus.  Diseases and other relatives of them are everywhere in the world, ranging from a light cough to a death-threatening illness. 

I could become an active participant of my learning by paying more attention to more of these diseases, considering that the country I come from is packed with viruses and plagues.  I can take responsibility for diseases and viruses by taking antibiotics and wearing the correct types of clothing in the correct types of weather so that I will not ever receive anything related to the West Nile virus.