Man in coma after mosquito bite

Man in coma after mosquito bite

news.bbc.co.uk

A holidaymaker has been left in a coma after becoming the first suspected European victim of a deadly virus.
Michael Nicholson, from Livingston, West Lothian, contracted the rare Triple E bug from a mosquito bite in the US, his family said.

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Related News Links:
www.timesonline.co.uk
news.scotsman.com

Triple E virus? Never heard of it. I was just getting used to E Coli, SARS, MRSA, blue tongue, and bird flu, and then this comes along. Scary indeed!
According to The Scotsman he's opened his eyes for the first time in five weeks. Fingers crossed for the poor guy.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I heard about this a little while ago and it's pretty scary stuff. 35% mortality rate and they say if this guy does survive he'll be disabled for life. The thing that surprised me most was that they don't out warnings for it

reply to post by Muppetus Galacticus


Is this a tropical disease? I know in Australia we have Ross River Virus and Dengue Fever which are both really serious but I have never heard of this one

great.
another disease i get to be freaked out about.
triple E...never heard of it till now.

sounds like a bad dude

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 8-10-2007 by Boondock78]

Mosquitoes have been popping up a lot recently, I'm usually swatting 2 or 3 every day/night. The weird thing is, even though it's now October and pretty cold and we're not leaving windows open, there still seems to be a fair amount of mosquitoes in the house.

I never remembered mosquitoes being a problem 10 years ago, I'd see maybe one a year, and then you might say to someone 'oh, I just saw a mosquito', and you'd normally get the response 'don't be silly, we don't have mosquitoes here'..

Just swat them.. I've found that the sole on a shoe is pretty good at that job ^-^

reply to post by shaunybaby


Careful what you say around here.......you may start another conspiracy

Interesting, it's not a new disease, but this is the first I've heard of it.

* Approximately 220 confirmed cases in the US 1964-2004

* Average of 5 cases/year, with a range from 0-15 cases

* States with largest number of cases are Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

* EEEV transmission is most common in and around freshwater hardwood swamps in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast states and the Great Lakes region.

* Human cases occur relatively infrequently, largely because the primary transmission cycle takes place in and around swampy areas where human populations tend to be limited.

www.cdc.gov...

I honestly couldn't tell the difference between a mosquito and a midge. And am I correct in thinking that it's only either the female or the male that bites? Or do they all bite? Funny how we've never heard of this disease before. You'd think there's be warning signs everywhere there are triple-e carrying mosquitoes. Maybe that guy was more susceptible than the normal bloke in the street?

I want to know why the Scotsman was lumbering around in the swamps. Maybe he went on an alligator tour of the Everglades or something.

In mosquitoes, only the female bites. The male eats flower nectar, if I'm not mistaken.

Originally posted by OzWeatherman
Careful what you say around here.......you may start another conspiracy

Well, I wasn't trying to suggest that it was deliberate. However, our climate is changing, and not really anything to do with how 'hot' it's getting, because apparently the increase in mosquitoes is because of the extra rain we've had this year. We saw a lot of places in England get flooded this year, and not just for a day or two, this was for a good week and more. What happens is that drains overflow and you have water that's full of sewage. With the increase of floods and mosquitoes, I think it's only a matter of time until we see some epidemics spread in England.

Here's a scenario: birds with bird flu, lots of mosquitoes bite birds, then bite humans, pretty easy way to get a disease around. Mosquitoes are like little STD carriers. Bless their little cotton socks ^-^

At the moment mosquitoes really aren't a problem in England because they're not carrying deadly diseases, but it doesn't mean to say that won't happen and increase over time.