West Nile Virus

[kinlaw6450]

Hi guys...

Well we've been back a week and most of the crew is still sick.

We spent 7 days at Ft. Wilderness (1500 Loop sites 1513 - 1511) out of the 15 of us 7 have been tentatively diagnosed with West Nile Virus. 3 from Virginia and 4 from Northern Florida (family reunion). Tentative because no spinal taps have been preformed. My nephew will have one in the next few days if his fever rises again.

The Dr. treating my neice and nephew is supposed to have already notified the resort but I don't know really that there is anything they can do.

The mosquitos were horrible the week we were there but the loop does back up to a canal so we didn't really think anything of it.

Anyway just FYI...don't forgot the mosquito spray!

Kami

p.s. Dr said most people will not even know they have it...but the very old and very young should take extra precautions. He compared it to dealing with a flu outbreak.

 

[campingcorgi]

Oh, my gosh! I am so sorry to hear that everyone is sick! Hope everyone gets well soon!!

 

[Whosemom]

I'm so sorry to hear this! I hope you are all feeling better soon. Thanks so much for telling us all thougth. We were just debating wether or not to take the screen house for the picnic table. I guess its a go!

 

[always quiet]

YIKES!! When we were there last Dec., we stayed in loop 200 in a campsite that backed up to a canal (this was per my asking - I THOUGHT my son and DH would be able to fish in there and liked the idea of some additional privacy by not having a campsite directly behind us). When we checked in, I knew immediately there would be no fishing in the canal....the water was green and stagnent!! Still, it didn't bother me too much. On Monday, it started to rain in the afternoon and it continued through the night. We woke up Tues morning to the sound of BUZZING!! The INSIDE of the camper was infested with mosquitoes!!!!! I woke the kids up so we could get out of there ASAP. I started to smoosh the ones that were landing on the walls. I almost died! Each one I smooshed had....ah....eaten recently! They all went splat and the inside of the camper started to resemble a crime scene!!!! I called the front desk and they said they could treat the canal that day but there was nothing they could give us for inside (funny, I thought with all the signs about West Nile that were on the property, they would of wanted to do something!). We lit an Off coil inside and left promptly. My youngest had more bites than anyone! Luckily no one got sick! I emailed Guest Relations when I got home to tell them of this problem. Some one called me back pretty quickly, but they assured me that they do treat for mosqiutos but there is only so much they can do..."act of God" I think he said!!

I'm so sorry you guys have gotten sick from your stay in FW!! I hope everyone makes a full recovery!!

 

[ftwildernessguy]

This is indeed unfortuneate. I wish you all a quick recovery.

Perhaps the response always quiet got was not the most diplomatic, but it is true. There is only so much interference we can do with nature. To some extent, we have to deal with our environment. It is virtually impossible to wipe out all the insects without wiping out ourselves, also. Disney does, I feel, a pretty good job with mosquito control. We were there last week and every morning at 5:45 the mosquito truck went through. Considering FW is built on swamp land, I really believe they are doing all they can.

 

[westjones]

We tent camped there in April 2002 and didn't have any problems with bugs. In fact, it is one of the things we were most surprised by since I had forgotten bug spray! We actually didn't use any the whole week we were there!

I wonder if time of the year has something to do with it. We were there in April, maybe the bug population is lower then? I don't know.

I am so sorry to hear that there is a bug problem there now because we had thought about camping there again in April 2005 (I know, that is far away, but we are long term planners).

I hope your family is all better soon. I appreciate you telling us. We may have to reconsider our plans to camp there again because one of my DD's has asthma, and West Nile could probably be very hard on her.

Were you in a cabin or a camper/tent? Maybe the cabins would be more protected at night.

DJ