JumpStart - Life Science
Viruses
RELATED LINKS
CDC answers your questions about WEST NILE ENCEPHALITIS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Neato Mosquito: An Elementary Curriculum Guide
This model curriculum was designed to teach 4th grade students in Nicholas County, West Virginia, about the prevention of LaCrosse Encephalitis. [Nicholas County has the highest rates of LaCrosse Encephalitis in the United States.]
The American Mosquito Control Association, founded in 1935, is a scientific/educational, not-for-profit public service association, world-wide in scope. It maintains extensive links on mosquitos.
QUICK FACTS
Arboviral encephalitides have a global distribution, but there are four main virus agents of encephalitis in the United States: eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), western equine encephalitis (WEE), St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) and LaCrosse (LAC) encephalitis, all of which are transmitted by mosquitoes.
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 WEST NILE-LIKE VIRUS
Wildlife biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey, in partnership with other federal, state and local agencies are studying the newly discovered West Nile-like virus which has been blamed for the deaths of three people in New York City and the deaths of many birds in the city and surrounding areas.
USGS biologists, teaming with scientists and managers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health and environmental departments in the New York City, New York State, Connecticut and New Jersey, are working to determine the extent of the problem in the Northeast.
USGS field teams are in New York and other areas capturing live birds, taking blood samples and releasing them. The samples will be sent to the National Wildlife Health Center for testing in an effort to detect West Nile-like virus and to the CDC laboratory in Fort Collins, Colo., to test for antibodies. USGS biologists at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wis., in collaboration with CDC will be analyzing samples from dead crows to determine if the virus is present. Crows appear to be very sensitive to infection with this virus and thus may be a good indicator of its presence.
"We're trying to map the distribution of this disease in birds both spatially and temporally. And we want to try to determine if it is expanding," said Dr. Robert McLean, a USGS wildlife biologist and NWHC Director who is leading the study. "We're watching areas particularly south of New York for crows which have died from diseases and then try to determine if this virus was responsible. We would like also to determine what other bird species are involved and if species besides crows are at risk of dying from the disease."
The CDC has made the link between the West Nile-like virus found in birds in New York City and the ongoing human encephalitis outbreak in the area. Several weeks ago, CDC identified a West Nile-like virus in a tissue sample from a New York City resident who recently died from encephalitis. CDC identified West Nile-like virus from birds that died in New York City and were submitted for testing by the Bronx Zoo. In addition, CDC confirmed that birds and mosquitoes in Connecticut also have been infected with West Nile-like virus.
West Nile virus is an arbovirus closely related to St. Louis encephalitis virus, but generally causes a milder disease in humans, according to information from the CDC. Both viruses are transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that becomes infected with the virus by feeding on an infected bird. Like St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile virus is not transmitted from person to person or from birds to persons. West Nile virus never before has been recognized in the United States or any other area of the Western Hemisphere. |
