Seven die in US West Nile outbreak
Date: 12-Aug-02
Country: USA
Author: Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Two women aged 76 and 94 died this week from the virus, which has spread faster and farther this year than before, the officials said.
"The number of suspected cases is bigger than ever," Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist in Louisiana, told a news conference. "We're not relaxing at all. There is no indication it is going to slow down any time soon."
Ratard said there were now 85 confirmed cases of West Nile fever and another 90 suspected cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 113 people across the country were infected, but several states had unconfirmed cases not yet reported to the CDC. The CDC was also expected to announce more confirmed cases last week.
The Health and Human Services Department announced late last week it was sending an extra $10 million via the CDC to states to use to fight the virus, bringing the CDC's West Nile budget to $27 million.
The CDC has officially reported one case each in Alabama and Illinois, 71 in Louisiana, 28 in Mississippi and 12 in Texas. Washington, D.C., reported its first case Thursday and Illinois health authorities said they had a second case.
Washington announced it would start efforts to kill mosquito larva as they breed but would not spray chemical pesticides, as Louisiana and other states have done. Many infected and dead birds have been found in the capital, including one on the White House lawn.
But the CDC has stressed that people need to act to prevent mosquito bites themselves, by covering up with long sleeves, clearing standing water from around their homes and using repellents. "People should take individual responsibility for protecting themselves," CDC epidemiologist Dr. Roy Campbell told the New Orleans news conference.
The CDC's Dr. Lyle Peterson said an unusually warm, dry summer could be fueling the quick spread of the virus, which infected a total of 149 people between 1999, when it first appeared in the United States, through 2001.
In those three years 18 people died of the virus, which in rare cases can cause encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, or meningitis.
The virus first showed up in a human this year in mid-June, a month earlier than in the past three years. Mosquitoes breed year-round in Louisiana.
Since it first appeared in New York in 1999 health officials have said West Nile would take permanent hold in the United States, and would spread gradually to most if not all of the country.
They also successfully predicted a relatively low rate of serious disease, with about one in 150 people becoming ill enough to be hospitalized.
But the CDC said it would test people in some of the most heavily affected areas this year to see how many people may be infected with the virus but not seriously ill. They were also studying whether a person becomes immune after being infected once - which is the case with related diseases such as yellow fever and St. Louis encephalitis.
There is a vaccine for horses but not for humans and there are no drugs to fight the virus. Experts also say there is no way to tell whether a mosquito bite has transmitted the virus - no special blister or rash develops, as is often the case when a tick transmits Lyme disease.
(Additional reporting by Mike Depp in New Orleans)