Unpredictability in Dallas West Nile Virus Outbreak

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Unpredictability in Dallas West Nile Virus Outbreak

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

DALLAS — Jay Wortham found it under the cabinet below the kitchen sink after his mother died in August — a blue bottle of insect repellent.

His mother, Margorie Wortham, 91, died of West Nile virus, the mosquito-borne illness that has spread across this city and other parts of the country, killing 118 people and sickening nearly 3,000 others nationwide.

Mr. Wortham believes that his mother was bitten by an infected mosquito one hot day in July while she sat on an old wooden bench under a pecan tree in her backyard. Though she had often used the bug repellent, she was not wearing any that day.

Here in Dallas County, the West Nile outbreak’s hardest-hit county in the United States, a few missed pumps of bug spray can haunt the relatives of those who die from the virus.

“I wish I had taken her this instead of a vodka and Coke,” said Mr. Wortham, 59, holding the bottle in his hands. “I ask that other people don’t make the same mistake.”

Ms. Wortham and 14 other people have died in Dallas County from the virus since July. Nine were men, and six were women. The youngest were in their 40s, and the oldest in their 90s.

Charles H. Pistor Jr., 81, was a well-known figure in Dallas — a retired banking executive, former vice chairman of the board of trustees at Southern Methodist University and past president of the Dallas Assembly civic group.

Dr. Tom M. McCrory, 92, a retired eye surgeon, died eight days after Mr. Pistor in July.

Dema Miller lived in the Dallas suburb of Irving and was one week shy of her 84th birthday when she died in August.

Local and federal health officials said the outbreak that has killed 57 people and sickened hundreds of others in Texas appeared to be waning, with Dallas County seeing a decrease in new cases in recent weeks. Still, the friends and relatives of the county’s fatal victims remain in a state of grief, coming to terms with the seeming randomness of healthy middle-aged people and active retirees cut down by ever-present insects.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.