title: Exacerbation of demyelinating syndrome after exposure to wireless modem with public hotspot.
abstract: In August 2003, 48-year-old JS of Colorado, USA, a fitness therapist and sports nutritionist, contracted neuroinvasive West Nile virus which left her with disabilities due to spinal axonal damage.In August 2014, she suddenly developed symptoms very much like her acute West Nile infection 11 years ago, including focal seizures, ataxia, vertigo and headaches. Her blood count looked normal so there was no obvious infection. What struck her as odd was that when she left her apartment for any length of time, the symptoms stopped. She found out that a new type of wireless modem, enabled for both personal use and functioning as a public hotspot designed to reach up to 100 m, had been installed in the flat under hers.Her neighbor replaced the modem with a router without the hotspot feature. After that, the seizures stopped immediately, and the other symptoms faded gradually, after which she was fine and again could sleep well. Later, when another activated hotspot was installed in an adjacent flat, JS once again noticed symptoms.A possible association between electrohypersensitivity, myelin integrity and exposure to low-intensity radiofrequency electromagnetic ﬁelds (RF-EMF) typical in the modern world has recently been proposed. Since the West Nile virus attacks both the nerve cells and the glial ones, one explanation to the above observed case effects is that the initial virus attack and the wireless modem's RF-EMF affect the nervous system through the very same, or similar, avenues, and maybe both via the oligodendrocytes.
authors.affiliation: a The Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience , Karolinska Institute , Stockholm , Sweden.
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.affiliation: b Centre for Research Excellence on Health Effects of Electromagnetic Energy, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine , Monash University , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Redmayne
mesh_terms: D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D000069079:Radiation Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D059015:Wireless Technology
keywords: Beacon signal; WiFi; electrohypersensitivity; hotspot; myelin; neurodegenerative disease; radiofrequency exposure; strobe effect