MODESTO BEE
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

By KEN CARLSON
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: September 24, 2005, 04:31:32 AM PDT

It's often said that the elderly and people with frail immune systems are most vulnerable to the West Nile virus.

Twenty-year-old Matthew Tennison of Modesto was "healthy as a horse," his family said. Still, the effects of one mosquito bite wrecked the nervous system of this rugged construction worker.

Now, in his third week of hospital care, he has to learn to feed and dress himself again, write his name and walk on his own.

Doctors tell the family it may take a year or more to recover.

"It has taken a toll on my life," said Tennison, a former Beyer High School student. "I am really hoping to get my vision back."

His eyesight is so blurry he can read only the large letters on the vision chart.

Tennison is one of five people under 25 to be infected with the West Nile virus in Stanislaus County this year. The three new cases of West Nile reported in San Joaquin County on Friday, included a minor-age girl who, like Tennison, has neuroinvasive West Nile disease.

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