September 19, 2003
DRAMATIC RISE IN WEST NILE CASES from Newsday

Cases of West Nile disease jumped by more than one-third over the past seven days across the country, and two people have developed encephalitis after receiving transfusions tainted with the virus, federal health officials said yesterday.

Infections rose from 2,878 a week ago to 4,137 as of yesterday. The dramatic increase of 1,259 cases in a week is in keeping with predictions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that this year's West Nile season would probably break last year's record. With a few weeks remaining in the season, there are only 19 fewer cases than the 4,156 recorded for all of last year.This week's surge was attributed, in part, to a delay in reporting from state health departments, a CDC spokeswoman said yesterday.
http://snurl.com/2e9r

September 17, 2003
THOUSANDS LIKELY TO GET MILD SICKNESS FROM WEST NILE VIRUS THIS YEAR

from Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) - A nasty three-day bout of fever is turning out to be a surprisingly common symptom of West Nile virus infection and may afflict about 100,000 Americans this year.

Dr. Lyle Petersen, who heads the government's West Nile efforts, said that about 20 percent of people who catch the virus get sick this way, while far smaller numbers - approximately one in 150 - get severe neurological symptoms. Most of the roughly 500,000 people expected to catch the virus this year will show no symptoms at all. Typical symptoms of the milder illness, called West Nile fever, include three to five days of fever, headache, eye pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. This may be followed by a red rash, then by several weeks of fatigue.
<http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/healthscience/story/1000632p-7026900c.html>

September 16, 2003
WEST NILE DRUGS SET FOR TESTING from Newsday

Small but eagerly awaited clinical trials are getting under way for two medications designed to treat West Nile disease, studies that could provide therapy for the most desperately ill.

The new drugs, though experimental, will be tested in people hospitalized for the worst cases, those in whom the virus has invaded the central nervous system. Doctors say the drugs also will be made available on a compassionate-use basis to physicians treating sick patients at medical centers not involved in the clinical studies.

West Nile disease, one of several emerging infections in the United States, is a mosquito-borne illness that peaks in summer. Outside of the two research medications, there are no treatments.
<http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-dstop3456793sep16,0,109125.story>

September 12, 2003
In 1796 Edward Jenner discovered that infection with the relatively benign cowpox virus granted immunity against its fatal cousin smallpox. A similar strategy might work against the deadly, mosquito-borne West Nile virus. After scientists unraveled West Nile's genetic code, they learned that its sequence strongly resembles that of the Australian Kunjin virus, which is nonlethal and less debilitating, causing mostly fever and aches. Microbiologist Roy Hall of the University of Queensland in Brisbane and his colleagues injected mice with varying levels of Kunjin DNA that had weakened virulence. Investigators found that even 0.1 microgram of Kunjin DNA triggered antibodies against both Kunjin and West Nile and protected mice injected with lethal doses of West Nile. The results appeared online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA the week of August 11.

September 9, 2003
WEST NILE'S LINGERING SIGNS

from Newsday

When West Nile disease invaded the New World four years ago, scientists knew they were dealing with a rare and potentially deadly pathogen. What they did not immediately grasp, however, were the various ways it could trigger debility.Now, as the virus spreads westward, medical researchers are producing evidence revealing how West Nile disease can, on occasion, seem uncannily like a scourge from the past.

Just as people stricken with polio generations ago developed a muscle weakness or paralysis after infection, so it is now for some infected with West Nile. Recognizing that such paralytic conditions can be a consequence of infection, federal health officials earlier this year expanded their definition of what it means to be infected with the virus.
<http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-dsspdn3446789sep09,0,2251156.story>

August 21, 2003
WEST NILE MOSQUITOES IN CALIFORNIA

from The San Francisco Chronicle

The West Nile virus -- steadily spreading across the United States for four years -- has been found in California mosquitoes for the first time, state Health Director Diana Bonta said Wednesday.

The virus was found in mosquitoes collected from traps Aug. 4 near the Salton Sea in Imperial County. More infected mosquitoes probably will be detected in Southern California during the remaining summer months, said John Edman, director of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases at UC Davis.It's all but certain that the virus will continue spreading through the state, borne mostly by migratory birds bitten by infected mosquitoes. The Salton Sea is an important stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway.
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/21/MN228544.DTL>

August 18, 2003
SPRING RAINS AND SUMMER HEAT BRING WEST NILE TO COLORADO from The New York Times

GREELEY, Colo., Aug. 16 — A rainy spring and the hotter-than-average summer that followed have helped bring an unexpected distinction to Colorado: the state has the worst outbreak of the West Nile virus in the nation this year, and this small town just north of Denver is at its epicenter.

"The mosquitoes have gotten a foothold," said Cindy Parmenter, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. For several years the mosquito-borne West Nile disease has spread along the East Coast and into the South, setting off mild panic in some areas. But it seemed as remote to Colorado as the region of Uganda that gave the disease its name after it was discovered there in 1937.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/national/18NILE.html?hp>

August 15, 2003
WEST NILE ENTERS PEAK; CASES DOUBLE from Newsday

ATLANTA -- West Nile virus, now entering its peak season, appeared in Arizona for the first time as the number of human infections more than doubled to nearly 400 over the past week, federal officials said Thursday. A new experimental screening process for the virus also flagged 163 infected blood donations, showing the virus can be effectively screened, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"As we had anticipated, West Nile is currently really picking up momentum within the United States," said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases.
<http://www.newsday.com/news/health/sns-ap-cdc-west-nile,0,4047276.story>

August 14, 2003
WEST NILE CASES TRIPLE IN A WEEK, from Newsday, as appeared in the August 14, 2003 issue of In the News, a daily science digest of Sigma Xi.

Human cases of West Nile disease have tripled within the past week, federal health officials said yesterday, and the median age of people contracting the infection is significantly younger than in previous seasons. The developments suggest this year's bout with the mosquito-borne virus could be the country's worst since the disease emerged in the United States four years ago when cases were first identified in New York City. More than 4,100 people were affected last year and 284 died.

Nationally, 164 human West Nile infections were reported yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than three times last week's tally. Last year at this time 112 cases had been reported across the country.
<http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsnile083405942aug08,0,2915674.story>