West Nile Hype

Misleading Headline Award: West Nile was worse than thought implies that the West Nile virus was more contagious or made people sicker than we had been led to believe last summer, but that isn't the case. What the story is really about is that the people who had severe forms of it - specifically West Nile encephalitis - were left with residual neurological difficulties after their infections cleared:

Fifty-four percent of patients admitted to three Chicago hospitals last year suffered from symptoms including vision loss, paralysis of more than half the body, muscle weakness, abnormally slow movement, numbness and an unstable walk, the study released Monday found--symptoms similar to those of Parkinson's disease, stroke, polio and other diseases that damage nerves.

..In the new study, researchers followed 28 patients from Rush, Loyola, University Medical Center and Cook County's Stroger Hospital.

First of all, that's a very small number of patients from which to generalize about the disease. Secondly, encephalitis is, by definition, an inflammation of the brain, so neurological damage isn't unexpected.

But, the researcher quoted in the article can't resist indulging in hyperbole:

The findings indicate the virus might have mutated into a more dangerous form, Watson said.

"It's more severe than in past epidemics," she said. "It's presenting with more virulent and more aggressive symptoms."

The findings don't indicate any such thing, as Dr. Watson's partner points out:

But Dr. Sidney Houff, a Loyola University neurologist who co-authored the study, said it's unlikely the virus has mutated.

Clearly, Dr. Houff is the Holmes of the team. But, how else were they going to get the media to notice their paper amidst all the SARS news?