Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
Doctors are suspecting a 17-year-old honor roll student who suddenly collapsed and then died was infected with a rare tick-borne illness.
Joseph Elone of Poughkeepsie, New York died shortly after midnight on August 5th according to NBC New York. The honor roll student who was hoping to become an environmental engineer collapsed in his front yard in the evening of August 4th.
He wasn’t breathing. He was rushed to Vassar Brothers Medical Center where he died a few hours later.
“I hugged my son, I called him,” Benedict Elone told NBC. “He couldn’t even answer.”
Health officials believe after initial testing that Elone died from Powassan encephalitis, a tick-borne disease for which there is no treatment. The disease can be transmitted from tick to human in just minutes.
“There are no diagnostic tests for the disease and no treatments that are effective,” Dr. David Roth of the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance told NBC.
A recent study of the Hudson Valley found that 6% of ticks carry a variant of the encephalitis virus which researchers say is lower than those carrying lyme disease but higher than expected in the region.
my father died on july 4, 2011 from this tick virus. Took him into Westchester medical center. they had no clue what they were doing. first they tried to tell me my dad was senile then in two days he was having siezures by 4th the virus went to his brain. he lived almost a year in a coma on life support. Its a shame these hospitals cant network when these rare diseases come up. The center for disease control finally got involved. We lived in Putnam Valley, Ny which is not far from pok. At the time of my dads illness there were only 10 known cases in the us.