West Nile Virus and Latex Allergy

I recently spoke with a dear second cousin, finding out what her mom, my cousin, was up to. My dear second cousin, Lucy has a very busy work life in Chicago. Several years ago she was bit by a mosquito at a picnic in a Chicago backyard. She suddenly became so ill that she required hospitalization for two weeks because she had come down with West Nile Virus.

She continues to work now, but has some effects resulting already from West Nile. She has totally lost her hearing in one ear. Her ankle and foot motor skills are lacking in one foot so that she walks with a sloppy gate. That foot has become numb. This woman works in a corporate job.

I spent some time in a west nile support group hoping to learn things that might help her. The most that I learned & shared with her was to join the group. The doctors knew very little about what problems she might have.

This is so much the same with natural rubber latex allergy. I let her know how little the medical community knows about either and how little the medical community will recognize either. She knows that I am there for her, just as I am for any of you with either of these.

You can go to LAForum@yahoo.com or google the support group for west nile. I can't remember the addy, but found them that way. They are an awesome group that don't realise how much in the beginning they are with this. After 15 years or more, we are still having severe difficulties getting natural rubber latex allergy recognized in the medical community, workman's comp, & SSD. We are also finding more medical problems that certainly seem related to the allergy.

Sal