Robins are the vector for West Nile virus not crows

Jun 5 2006

GenoMed has underscored the discovery by Connecticut scientists that robins are the vector for West Nile virus in their state, not crows.

Robins carry the virus without showing any symptoms, whereas crows get sick from the virus and die.

The same is true for human beings. Eighty percent of people with the virus have no symptoms at all, like robins. But 20% of people with viremia have symptoms: fever, headache, crushing fatigue. About a quarter of symptomatic patients progress to coma, and up to a third of people in coma die. The survivors have residual symptoms, including paralysis, for years later.

GenoMed has developed (and applied for patent protection on) a treatment for WNV that turns "crows" into robins. The Company uses safe, FDA-approved blood pressure pills to lower the immune response to the virus among the "crows" whose immune system overreacted to the virus.

GenoMed has used this treatment successfully for actual birds as well as people. This year the Company is extending its treatment to horses as well.

GenoMed published their initial results with 8 patients two years ago in a peer-reviewed medical journal. GenoMed's trial is now up to 22 patients; 19 have shown a rapid clinical response, for an 86% treatment success rate. GenoMed's success rate in birds is 50% so far (6 survivors, 6 deaths). It's lower because birds are found closer to death than humans.

It's therefore inaccurate for public health authorities to maintain that West Nile viral disease has no treatment. Public health authorities have limited themselves to counting dead crows and people since the epidemic began in 1999. Such pessimism hasn't been justified for the past 4 summers, once GenoMed introduced its novel treatment in May, 2003.

Said Dr. David Moskowitz, GenoMed's CEO and Chief Medical Officer, "GenoMed will offer its trial again for free this summer, since we'd like to collect more clinical outcomes data to convince the skeptics, especially the public health authorities. Anyone can download the trial protocol from our website, www.genomed.com, at any time of day or night. We simply request an email address to make clinical follow-up possible."

Added Dr. Moskowitz, "I'd appreciate it if anyone reading this could alert their friends to the existence of our trial. I'm sure they'd prefer singing like robins to croaking like crows."