I am generally not a panicker on things like this - but I've been reading about the high(ish) levels of west nile in greater Phoenix and am (just) a little concerned. We are booked in to stay for 2 nights at the Camelback - and it would be an awful shame if we felt we were afraid to go out, or sit on our balcony! Mosquitos love me - and they'll bite whether I'm using repellant (DEET) or not (or, if I forget for a second or two to reapply - they're there like a shot!). We have to stay in Phoenix (Scottsdale) for the first night anyway - as we'll just have flown 11 hours from the UK - but it would be easy to change the 2nd night, if I thought our enjoyment would be curtailed (that is, if I had a mozzie bite, I would worry for the rest of the vacation! My health hasn't been that great lately.)
Any thoughts on this? Or is it being blown up a bit out of proportion (or is my mind blowing it up out of all proportion?)
Thanks.

Of course it has been blown over. I heard the same funny story 2 weeks ago in Las Vegas. And if you know that mosquitos need water for reproducing? No water in Las Vegas, except for swimming pools with antiseptic water. I didn?t see any mosquito at all there.

Oh no - it's real alright. See http://www.news-medical.net/?id=3683 and http://www.maricopa.gov/wnv/
Mosquitos need water to breed, sure - but this can be in the form of bird baths or even water in guttering!

OFF works. Don't worry!

I had WNV 2 years ago and it was not that bad. I live in an area that gets it every year... but I will never get it again!
I felt lethargic and well, bad. The scary part was swelling of glands that you don't know exist. I had some on the back of my neck, near my scull that swelled and I thought my brain was swelling or something. I came down with it in Toronto (got it at home) and I went straight to the hospital from the a/p. No biggie, though. Got on some mega antibiotics and felt better the next week.
I was the "another reported case of WNV" on the news that night!
We all use the better smelling Off now and no one else has caught it.
If you are sick, pregnant, very young, old or have a weakened immune system you should always use some form of mosquito protection!

Potentially Fatal Disease, mis amigos!
I had same in Aug '02 in DFW. I am now immune, but don't challange God's "little creatures" on any level.
CR has Ultrathon rated as the very best insect repellent.
M (MD ABIM,ABNM,ABR)

Okay, mikemo, you have once again made me curious with all of those initials...what do they stand for? Thanks!

Sorry you guys got the WND - and I know it can be serious. But what should I do? Go running up to the hills to escape the ravenous bite of a mozzie, or sit tight and be very careful with the repellant (btw - am in the UK; we don't have OFF!) I'm not afraid of flying (well, I am - but I'm willing to risk it!), or of terrorist threats, or of rattlesnakes, or scorpions, or bears - or any of those possible dangers - but the mozzies have freaked me out - as I know they always come running for me! LOL! I have been plenty sick this year (with a blood disorder), so I need this holiday so badly - but I don't want to get sick and ruin the vacation (for me and the family). But if everybody ran up to the mtns, Phoenix's tourist industry would go through terrible crisis (as happened here a few years back with foot 'n' mouth (or 'hoof', I believe you call it). Either way, after reading the news stories, the first two days of the trip is kinda spoilt. Either we'll run away (and I SO want to stay at the Camelback amongst all those cacti) - or we'll stay at the Camelback and I'll be watching for mosquitos 24/7, not sleeping and making everybody's lives a misery! So, what is needed, is some perspective here - and I appear to be incapable of getting that right now! (Besides, it'll be Labor weekend and nearly everything 'up the mountains' is booked, or requires minimum nights.)
Apologies for the grumbles and panicking - I think I have pre-vacation stress!

seetheworld,
I certainly have and still do!
(MD ABIM ABNM ABR)
are my "official" professional creds.
MD - nuff said
ABIM, ABNM, ABR - American Board certification in Internal Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, and Diagnostic Radiology (with special competence in nuclear imaging).
My "tropical medicine" experience in Panama in '73 was the very best: helped me DX and occasionally save more than a few folks with TbC, Plague, Brucellosis and stuff nearly no one in the US has ever seen.
M

OH S...!
If your very competent internist is ever confused when you have unusual symptoms, please, please volunteer your recent TRAVEL HISTORY.
Often, the best of the best are too busy to ask!!!
M

Which makes me wonder if the poor lady that is spoken of on another thread, who became ill while in Peru, might have gotten her initial illness from a mosquito bite.
( WND, Lyme, Menengitis/encephalitis ) I knew a lady in NYC who had been bitten while in SA and died from encephalitis a few months after returning home.
I use the scented Off..it smells a little too much like floral room deoderant but being someone who attracts every biting insect,I am happy to smell like Raid or Whatever if those buggars don't bite!
Good luck, wildblue, I think with some precautions, you need not be terrified

hi wildblueyonder...we "spoke" last week about Sedona, when I mentioned our experiences at Pinon Pointe etc. (the Thanksgiving story re our daughter). The daughter I talked about in that thread lives in Phoenix and she and her husband are outdoors people to the extreme. This weekend they are camping and canyoneering with the Sierra Club, they hike for exercise and their hiking during the week is all done on South Mountain in Phoenix after work...dusk, the time "mossies" would be most active. They camp as many weekends as possible...they might as well be AZ's sentinel chickens! This is a day in day out activity for them, yet no West Nile.

Please keep in mind that the total of 232 you saw in the website was for the entire state of AZ, and although they indicated Maricopa County had the greatest number, Maricopa County (Phoenix) also has a population of over 3 million people and the entire population of AZ is only something over 5 million. 232 cases out of all those people is a very small percentage of people. Think of the people going about their daily lives there, day in day out...you will have only 2 days, and on those two days you will use a mosquito repellant, which I'm willing to guarantee, not that many people in AZ use daily.

Try and keep the bigger picture in mind, 232 cases out of 5 million people who live there every day...and little ole you with only two days...little ole you who will be coated with Off or the like! Enjoy Camelback and the rest of your trip! I hope you'll write a trip report when you get back. Safe travels and good health!

Hi again OO. Thanks - this is just what I needed - reassurance! Yes, I'm sure it'll be fine and I'll STOP WORRYING! It's just a bit of pre-trip jitters, I'm sure - and, because I've been a bit unwell this year (know all about that nuclear medicine of mikemo's - been injected with every blasted radioactive isotope that exists, I think! LOL!), I want the trip to go as smoothly as possible, more for my family's sake than for mine. And I'd just got the itinerary 'finally' finalised and read the articles on the WND! Apologies for the slight panic! And thanks again! You might be sorry you've asked for a trip report though - I'm likely to ramble on for pages!

wildblueyonder, OK...here's new way of looking at this! Our daughter is "slightly radioactive" still after toxic I131 to kill off lingering thyroid tissue. Perhaps she (and you) have a little arc of isotopes around you, protecting you and those nearby--something only mosquitoes sense and avoid. Any port in a storm. For your own peace of mind, wear your Off daily and have fun.

We've talked about pre-trip jitters here before. Lots of us have a form of it--mine consists of maniacal house cleaning before a trip. And of course it just needs it again when we get home after 2 weeks so mine is no more productive than yours. Once I get away..even just once I'm at the airport, all the tension is gone. Hope you are the same.

I'll look forward to your pages long trip report when you get back. You are going to a spectacularly beautiful section of our country!

OO, your fears/hopes re: radioiodine (esp the theraphy version of I 131) are nonsense: 90% of the RX is from mid level Beta energy which has a range of 2 - 3 mm - quite effecitive for treatment).
She ( with the smaller gamma) will attract security in many places here in the US, so I highly recommend having copies of the med docs for her adventures.
M

Hi mikemo, I know...I was being facetious with wildblueyonder, thus the smiley faces. She was told, and did have, copies of her treatment with her when they flew here in April, although she never set anything off. My quip about keeping the mossies away was a bit of silliness. However, she did have to be isolated from her husband and cats for 5 days so perhaps she could still eradicate a mosquito thyroid? (Big smilee here)

I am seriously curious about one aspect of this though. These machines we pass through at airport security are more than metal detectors?. There is something, seriously, that can pick up on radiation??

Hi OO again
Yes I recognised that you were joking about the isotopes!! But I was concerned about them (chromium and iodine) and did ask the doctor who injected them about my being radioactive and getting through the security at the USA airports. Apparently these would only be in my body for 28 days. (1/effect half life = 1/physical half life + 1/biological half life = 28 days) I sincerely hope he's right - or I might be crackling all over the place- then what?! I have a hospital appointment tomorrow morning - perhaps I should ask for a note, just in case!
One thing's for sure though, the mozzies (here anyway!) still bite me - radioactive or not! LOL!

Wildblueyonder, I'll top this for mikemo who may have answers for you. I don't know a thing about the various kinds of radioactivity so can only speak from our daughter's experience. Although she was advised, as I said, to carry a note from her doctor regarding her treatment, their trip here was just 7 or 8 days after ingesting the I-131 pills and the subsequent isolation where even her eating utensils had to be thrown out, yet she did not set off airport detection equipment.

They had decided to say nothing about it at the airport unless alarms sounded, no point in raising issues unnecessarily, but she said her husband turned and watched somewhat anxiously as she passed through the metal detector. In this day and age, that alone would raise flags! I'm not even sure those machines detect anything other than metal, or at what point you might trip something and will be curious if mikemo knows. In your shoes...I'd probably have some note just for peace of mind, especially seeing as you already have an appt, so obtaining one would be no problem. A votre sante!

Unfortunately, I do know the Nuke security, but I would be a fool or worse, if I spoke about same.
M

I'm not sure of what they do in Paradise Valley (Where the Camelback Inn is located), but in Tempe where I live, they 'fog' the area to kill mosquitos. I have been gone most of the summer but have not seen any mosquitos when I have been outside here.

Mosquitos are not as prevalent in the Phoenix area as they are in other states such as Maine or Alaska.

The Camelback Inn (you just say Camelback, but I am assuming you mean Camelback Inn) is located in a non-irrigated area of Maricopa county so I would think that there are not as many mosquitos as other areas that are irrigated.

However, if your immune systems has been compromised then you should take precautions - don't go outside at dawn or dusk. If you do, put on a DEET containing repellent (30% is said to be sufficient).

Our newspaper recently said that the species that transmits the disease bites without people ususally even noticing that they are being bit, so just because you didn't notice being bit doesn't mean that you weren't.