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EAST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES () — A 13-year-old boy from Long Beach is in the hospital after being diagnosed with a rare and devastating case of West Nile virus.
From his hospital bed at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, 13-year-old Joseph Vazquez describes what he’s dealing with after contracting a severe complication of West Nile virus.
“I’m feeling pain in my legs.”
The medical term for it is Transverse Myelitis, caused by inflammation of the spinal cord.
Joseph says he was playing basketball with friends when he fell. He says his knees ached. After a couple of days he was still in pain. Then one night he got up out of bed.
“It was the nighttime everyone is sleeping. I was trying to walk by myself, I fell two times and I banged my back on the wall,” Joseph said.
His mother, Maria Salazar, says her son was bitten by mosquitoes on his legs and believes that’s how he may have contracted the virus. These were the signs she saw early on..
“When he started to develop rash all over his body and then he fell at school, ” Maria said.
Joseph says he’s been dealing with constant pain everyday.
“Mainly my legs and I get headaches every once in a while.”
Dr. Jonathan Santoro is a neurologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He says, “with individuals who have transverse myelitis or spinal cord involvement it can take weeks to months to make recovery there. Certainly for individuals that have meningitis or incephalitis, that trajectory can be even longer. Some patients are left with seizures or cognitive issues after they have it as well.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.
Dr. Santoro recommends removing standing water around your property and using bug spray outdoors to help avoid mosquitoes and mosquito bites. He also pointed out that because of the El Niño forecast for this winter, mosquito season can last several more weeks in Southern California.
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