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TOP STORIES FOR
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2003
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Medical Tests Confirm Human West Nile Virus in Carroll
County |
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By Linda Bolton
linda@mckenziebanner.com |
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The result of recent medical testing indicates that a
McKenzie man has recovered from West Nile infection, a
mosquito-borne virus that can occasionally cause
meningitis or encephalitis in humans.
Ben Thomas Surber, who owns a local farming operation,
said he visited his personal physician, Dr. John Holancin
approximately two weeks ago "because I thought I had a bad
cold. I felt just like I had the flu."
Mr. Surber, who noted he had been feeling bad for about 30
days, said he was also experiencing aching joints and was
running a low grade fever.
The patient was given two prescriptions for antibiotics
and instructed to take it easy for a few days.
During the doctor's examination, it was decided that blood
would be drawn to test for Lyme disease and West Nile
Virus. When results came back a few days later, it
indicated Mr. Surber tested negative for both diseases,
However, antibodies found in his blood test revealed that
he had West Nile Virus sometime in the past, but had
recovered.
Dr. Holancin was unavailable to comment on Surber's case,
however a hospital spokesperson told the Banner that West
Nile antibodies on ones blood concludes only that a
person's body has fought the disease in the past and does
not determine whether it was a few days, months, or years
before that the disease had been present in the body.
"I'm feeling a lot better now," said Surber, who said
there is no way to know, but he believes that he may have
contracted the cold because his resistance was low from
having West Nile. He said he is still a little tired and
is resting more to compensate for that.
Ironically, Mr. Surber's quarter horse with cutting
breeding was diagnosed with West Nile Virus approximately
eight weeks ago.
"She was staggering and I thought she had maybe had a
stroke," said Mr. Surber.
Dr. David Lott of Tri-County Animal Clinic was contacted
to care for the animal. Blood tests were sent to the state
lab which quickly confirmed the animal was positive for
West Nile Virus.
The horse has since made a full recovery, said Dr. Lott.
He noted however that once an animal contracts the
disease, there is nothing that can be done to kill the
virus and the doctor can only provide supportive care,
such as administering anti-inflammatory medications.
"Antibiotics are not effective against West Nile because
it is a virus," said Dr. Lott.
Dr. Lott noted that approximately two-thirds of the horse
population that contracts West Nile Virus will recover,
while one-third will succumb to the disease.
"If it is caught early, it is not uncommon for them to get
over it," he said.
The Surber horse is the only one in Dr. Lott's care that
has tested positive for the disease this year. However, he
said he has one other case that he is suspicious of at the
present time. He is currently awaiting test results to
confirm or deny the virus.
Dr. Lott noted that the best precaution for West Nile in
horses is a preventative vaccine. The initial shot is
followed by a booster vaccination in three weeks.
"That seems to be working pretty well as a preventative,"
said Dr. Lott, who noted that once the virus is
contracted, there is nothing that can be done to kill the
virus. It just has to run its course, he said.
The local veterinarian suggested that animal owners also
control the mosquito population on their property as much
as possible, by removing standing water. Buckets and old
tires filled with water tend to serve as an excellent
breeding ground for mosquitoes.
A Tennessee report on West Nile Virus reveals that in
Carroll County, one horse and one bird have tested
positive during 2003; while there have been no cases in
Henry and Weakley counties.
Tim Carter, Environmentalist for Tennessee Health
Department, said once a county has a positive case of West
Nile in a horse, birds are no longer tested that year in
that county. Therefore, birds will no longer be accepted
for testing this year at Carroll County Health Department,
he said.
Mr. Carter said he collected a Blue Jay specimen for
testing Monday in Henry County. He is awaiting results of
that test.
Horses are tested by veterinarians, said Carter, and those
tests will likely continue.
A recent government report stated that West Nile virus
infection may afflict approximately 100,000 Americans this
year.
Dr. Lyle Petersen, who heads the government's West Nile
efforts, said a nasty three-day bout of fever is turning
out to be a surprising common symptom of West Nile virus
infection. He said about 20 percent of people who catch
the virus get sick this way, while far smaller numbers -
approximately one in 150 - get severe neurological
symptoms. Most of the roughly 500,000 people expected to
catch the virus this year will show no symptoms at all.
Typical symptoms of the milder illness, called West Nile
fever, include three to five days of fever, headache, eye
pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. This may be followed
by a red rash, then by several weeks of fatigue.
Peterson said he is a personal authority on West Nile
fever because he got it in July.
"I didn't feel back to normal for a couple of weeks," he
said.
Petersen said that this year, 66 people have died of West
Nile infections, which is about the same as last year's
total at this time. By the end of 2002, 284 people died.
According to the state report, in 2002 there were 226
humans evaluated, with 55 reported cases and 7 deaths.
There were no human cases in Carroll or Henry counties;
however Weakley County reported three cases.
Curtis Darby, 91, of Greenfield became the state's third
fatality of West Nile virus, when he died August 9. An
83-year-old Gibson County man was also confirmed as having
the virus, and recovered.
Also in 2002, 1430 birds were submitted for testing, with
824 testing positive. Local positive birds included:
Carroll County - 10 Blue Jays; Henry County, 5 Blue Jays,
1 crow; and Weakley County, 9 Blue Jays.
Equine testing positive in 2002 were: Carroll County - 0;
Henry County - 6 horses (3 deaths); and Weakley County - 8
horses (1 death).
State reports reveal that to date in 2003, there are 7
human cases of West Nile throughout the state - one in
Davidson County, five in Shelby County, and one on
Sullivan County. |
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Huntingdon Schools Proactive in No Child Left Behind |
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By Joel Washburn
washburn@mckenziebanner.com |
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No Child Left Behind - a phrase that conjures up
unrealistic goals in upcoming years - is being met
head-on by the Huntingdon Special School District.
Students who scored below average in the third grade on
the TCAP tests are now receiving special attention in a
special computer lab at the Huntingdon Middle School.
Individual students are being assigned to the lab to
"bring them up," said Danny Truett, Director of Schools.
The two computer labs include software known as A-Plus,
which is aligned with the TCAP test.
Becky Cox and Jean Caton are the teachers in the
computer lab, which is estimated to have some $90,000
worth of hardware and software. Extended contract funds
are being utilized to help students after school in the
lab, said Truett.
While HPS and HMS had areas on the No Child Left Behind
report, Truett said the school had more students who
scored in the advanced category. Board Chairman Tony
Tucker said he didn't want to reduce funding to the
advanced students, but rather support all students in
the school system.
Architectual drawings for a multi-million dollar
expansion and renovation at Huntingdon High School
should be ready soon and construction bids will be
sought, said Truett. If adequate funds are available,
the school system will also build a new gymnasium at the
Huntingdon Primary School. Truett presented several
"preliminary" plans for such a gymnasium. Preliminary
plans included options for the new buildings with and
without restrooms and the option of brick and/or metal
exterior facades. Tucker recommended the addition of
restrooms so that the gymnasium can be utilized for
after-hours activities while the remaining school
buildings remain secure. |
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Bethel's PA Program Gets Thumbs Up, Brings Prestige to
College |
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By Jim Steele
steele@mckenziebanner.com |
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Things are looking very good for Bethel College's
fledgling Physician's Assistants program.The post-graduate program already has already moved its
first class through and has 16 students in its second
class. Even better is that the program has received a
clean bill of health from the Accreditation Review
Commission for the Education of Physician's Assistants (ARCPA).
"In June, we got a wonderful report for ARCPA," said Dr.
Susan McCormick, director of Bethel's PA program. "We
were fully accredited with no citations."
The curriculum started with what is known as provisional
accreditation, but has since earned the full seal of
approval.
"They noted we could use more help," she said. "So we've
added to our faculty."
Retired surgeon Dr. Tom Brown of Huntingdon has been
added to full-time faculty and teaches clinical
medicine.
Dr. Joe Hames, an M.D., is the program's medical
director and consultant and is joined by McCormick,
Brown and Pas Bruce Burkeen, Roger Jones, Clint Blaine
and J.C. Carey. In the sports-medicine arena, Sandra
Stephenson and Shannon Browning have joined the staff.
"PAs are called mid-level providers and provide primary
care," McCormick said. "Half of them specialize in
fields like emergency or orthopedic surgery."
"PAs have to take a national board exam and are licensed
by the state and they are allowed to practice with a
physician," said Hames. "They can make a preliminary
diagnosis and determine if it's something that can be
treated by the PA or if it needs the attention of the
physician; and they are trained to work triage."
Physician's assistants also can write prescriptions, but
work in concert with the doctor.
Hames said he has grown during his experience with the
program.
"We are constantly getting feedback on how we can
improve things," he said. "Personally, the one thing
that has gotten better each time is our computer
resources. All our classroom presentations are on
PowerPoint (a computer program) and we are constantly
evaluating our program to see how it correlates to the
national board testing. We use the internet a lot."
McCormick said that the school's technological advances
caught the eye of program evaluators.
"The accrediting people were impressed with our level of
technology," she said. "We have discussion boards,
announcements, places to go for resources, PowerPoint
presentations for all our lectures. We may be small and
in McKenzie, Tennessee, but the ARCPA was very impressed
with our monitoring system."
Jones, one of the faculty members, has implemented a
real-time data gathering system that makes evaluation of
the curriculum and student progress almost
instantaneous.
"A lot of people use paper and pencil," said McCormick.
"Now it's real-time data."
"Interactive is a good word for it," said Hames. "We use
the Internet a lot."
The program has grown from 12 students to 16 with this
year's graduating class to 24 in June of 2005. It's a
24-month program that goes year-round.
"The thing that's amazing to me is that we've done this
word of mouth, with very little advertising," Hames said
of the selective program. "If we advertised, we'd be
inundated."
But both Hames and McCormick praised Bethel's foresight
for initiating such a program. Bethel joins Trevecca
Nazarene College in Nashville as the only two colleges
with PA programs in Tennessee.
"I think it's a very prestigious thing for Bethel
College," Hames said. "And there's a need for it. The
first class hasn't had a shortage of job offers, so it's
real gratifying."
Said McCormick: "The college was real forward thinking
in trying to meet the needs of the region and the
community. It was good in that the college wants to draw
more students to the college interested in the health
profession."
In October, students from the Bethel program will be
attending a Tennessee Association of PAs conference. |
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Group Explores Possible Boys and
Girls Club in McKenzie |
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By Joel Washburn
washburn@mckenziebanner.com |
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Children need a positive and constructive place to meet,
learn and play during their impressionable years. That's
why the congregation of the Greater Enon Baptist Church
in McKenzie is spearheading an effort to establish a
Boys and Girls Club in McKenzie.
Brother James Stewart, pastor of Greater Enon convened a
group of church, civic, and city leaders on Wednesday,
September 17 to hear Bobby Lee Smith of Atlanta,
Regional Service Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America.
Smith said the community must decide what level of
services it needs to provide to youth between the ages
of 6 and 18 years old. According to Smith's statistics,
there are 2,500 to 3,000 children in that age group
within a 10-mile radius. Boys and Girls Clubs provide
positive interaction, tutoring, and games for this age
group. Between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. is when
many latchkey kids get in trouble, said Smith.
Startup costs for a Boys and Girls Club is between
$120,000-$150,000, however, some of those expenses can
be lessened by partnering with existing community
facilities such as schools, churches, or public houses
facilities. Volunteer staff members can be obtained from
area colleges, said Smith. Partnering with existing Boys
and Girls Club, such as the one in Jackson, can reduce
other administrative costs. A total of 19 clubs exist in
Tennessee.
Smith noted the cost of serving each child is
approximately $300 annually. The founders would have to
determine if the community support is available to fund
the ongoing expenses of the facility. Some of the
funding can be obtained from grants for the
organization's national partners and from funds coming
an alliance, funded in part from the purchase of Titans
(football) license plates and a new tax on marriage
licenses in Tennessee.
Boys and Girls Clubs are about "creating productive
citizens," said Smith.
Dr. David Reed, a professor at Bethel College, said he
has been impressed with the quality of training of the
Boys and Girls Club professionals. "They will make your
Boys and Girls Club work," said Reed. "I sure would love
to see one here."
Brother Stewart promised another meeting of the group
and encouraged others to get involved in the process.
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These
stories and more exclusively in the
print edition: |
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- Accident claims lives of former McKenzians
- Work Progressing on Forrest Avenue
- Tanner Speaks to Cancer Care Group
- McKenzie Native Aids Titans
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or Fax (731)
352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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