An elderly Arlington man with underlying health conditions became the 10th person to die of the West Nile virus in Tarrant County.
Tarrant County Public Health said the man was in his 70s, but declined to provide any more details on his death.Last week, Congressmen Joe Barton and Bill Flores, along with 19 House and Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Seblius and Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Friedman asking for more help in addressing the West Nile outbreak in Texas and across the nation."The situation in Texas is actually much worse than these preliminary figures indicate," the letter said. "These cases only reflect 'reported cases' to health departments and there are only 61 full service local health departments within Texas' 254 counties, significantly contributing to under-reporting."They are urging a stepped-up effort of the West Nile vaccine and say they believe Texas A&M's Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing is the best place to develop it. The center is one of three of the national centers awarded a contract with Health and Human Services and the CDC."We believe the recent history of this disease creates a significant public health risk of national proportions and urge your immediate attention to this issue," the letter said.Although everyone is at risk of being impacted by West Nile, people age 50 and older are at a higher risk of developing the more serious, neuroinvasive infection.Symptoms can include a flu-like illness, with moderate to high fever (102 degrees or more), a severe headache, severe muscle ache or joint pain, severe eye pain, mental changes, fatigue, nausea and respiratory symptoms.Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698Twitter: @fwhannaHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
