How to Protect Yourself from the West Nile Virus

Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa. Witness an MMA legend's final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defense her PFL world title, one last time. Unforgettable end to an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd live from Benchmark International Arena. For tickets, visit pfl. info slash Tampa. Last year, San Diego County saw no human cases of the mosquito-born West Nile virus. This year, however, we have four. And one of the cases was acquired locally. There have also been two deaths from the virus in California's Central Valley. Joining us now on the Kogo News Liveline, the medical director for Blue Shield of California, Promise Health Plan, Dr. Scott Flynn. Thanks for coming back on Coco's Morning News. Good morning. So let's talk a little bit about West Nile virus. I have a couple of mosquito bites on me right now. Oh, no. And of course, you know, you start thinking, oh my gosh, you know, how, what are the chances of getting this? What do we know about it and what does it do to you? Well, it's pretty rare, but it is out there, obviously, if we've had four cases already in San Diego. And what it does you usually, up to 80% of people don't even get any symptoms, and about 20% of people do get symptoms, which is a fever and some headache, some aches and pains, and it's usually a pretty mild disease. rarely it can get pretty bad and cause something bad called encephalitis where it gets into your lining of your brain and spinal cord and can cause a very serious disease and very, very rarely even death. What about treatment? If you discover that you've been infected, what kind of treatment is available? There's no treatment for it, but there's supportive care if you have a severe disease. So if you've been bitten by a mosquito and you get fever and headaches and a stiff neck, that's when we recommend you go in and get checked. Could you potentially live with it? Yeah. And if you do get it, it gets to be the severe disease. What all happen is they'll end up doing what's called supportive care. You'll end up in the hospital. I'll probably get some steroids and some other things like that and make sure that if you have trouble breathing, they can help you with that and support your basic functions. So the people that it becomes fatal in, are they usually already immunocompromised or, you know, elderly? Yes. Exactly. So people that are at higher risk are immunocompromise from cancer or something like that, older age, which is defined as over 65, have other chronic diseases going on, chronic keeping disease, chronic liver disease, things like that. The average healthy person, again, 80% don't even know they've even had it.

We're speaking with Dr. Scott Flynn, the medical director for Blue Shield of California's Promise Health Plan. What can we do? Does repellent actually work? Yes. Okay, because we did a study, we did a story about a study earlier this week that says beer attracts mosquitoes, which I was pushing back against because I figure, you know, a lot of people who are drinking beer anyway are probably out by a campfire and being exposed to mosquitoes. Yes, I hadn't heard that study. That's an interesting study. It may be the aromas, as you know, mosquitoes usually vector in on something called carbon dioxide, which is what you're expelling when you breathe. And they're very sensitive to that particular gas. They can smell that and know that's what they expire as we are breathing in and out. Of course, what's in the bubbles in beer, CO2. So maybe might make some chemical sense. The things that repell it, though, are if you have the deed spray, those kind of things, when you look at off or other things like that that are bug spray, they have that active ingredient in it, which acts as the bug repellent. And that works very well for that. So we recommend using that, wearing long sleeves, protective clothing if you're out in areas where you're out camping and drinking a beer, that would be a smart thing to do, especially this time of year with this going on right now. Two things. Number one, my parents used to tell me if you set close to the campfire while the smoke would drive away the mosquitoes. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense. And second... It doesn't hurt. Yeah. Again, the best thing really is, indeed, because the back of your neck, et cetera, could be exposed. So if you have some of the bug spray on, make sure you're putting it on the back of your neck and any exposed skin, really. And here's another life hack I have discovered. My mother always used to say this. Sleep at the fan pointed at you. The mosquitoes don't like that. There are certain types of mosquitoes that don't like wind. There are other types that don't mind it at all. Oh, well, I hope I only run into the first ones. Dr. Scott Flynn, thank you so much for doing that. Yeah, doing that fan is just spreading your CO2 gas so they can find you even further away. Oh, so she's counterintuitive there. Yeah. Counterintuitive, yeah. If you're out in an infected area where there, you know there's mosquitoes, wear long sleeves, and wear some spray. All right. Dr. Scott Flynn Medical Director for Blue Shield of California's Promise Health Plan. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Have a great one. Talk to you again soon. Saturday, August 22nd in Tampa, witness an MMA legend's final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defense her PFL world title, one last time. Unforgettable end to an unforgettable career. And still. Saturday, August 22nd live from benchmark international arena.

For tickets, visit pfl. info slash Tampa.