in March of a dead blue jay and two dead sparrows in Louisiana signaled the
reawakening of another looming public health threat – West Nile virus.
The mosquito-borne illness swept across 40 states last year, making more
than 4,000 people seriously ill and killing 284. Four other states recorded
the infection in animals but not in people.
The virus that migrated to this country in 1999 also provided surprises
last year for public health officials who discovered that the illness could be
spread through blood transfusions, organ donation and breast-feeding, and from
a pregnant woman to her unborn child.
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Dr. Bruce Lenes, medical director for Community Blood Centers of South
Florida, said a test to screen the blood supply for West Nile is in
development and is expected to be available nationwide by July. In the
meantime, blood donation centers are likely to turn away anyone with fever or
headache and to ask them to report back if they develop those symptoms soon
after donating blood.
“Our main message is these diseases are preventable,” said Dr. Lisa Conti,
director of environmental health for the Florida Department of Health, “so we
urge people to take precautions to keep from being bitten, especially older
people who are out and about.”
She urged people to get rid of mosquito breeding places on their property,
to stay indoors at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active, and to dress
in long sleeves and pants and use an insect repellent containing deet if they
must be outside.
“We certainly are concerned that we may have an outbreak [this year] that
is fairly robust,” Conti said.
While the majority of people who contract the virus do not have symptoms,
about 20 percent develop West Nile fever. In mild cases, the symptoms can
include body aches, fever and headache, sometimes with a rash on the trunk and
swollen lymph glands.
In severe infections, brain inflammation can develop, with headache, high
fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions,
muscle weakness and paralysis. People 50 and older have the highest risk of
severe disease.
The winter months provided a respite from the virus in most parts of the
country, but yesterday two Harvard experts predicted the disease will soon
re-emerge.
“It is entirely reasonable to expect that the North American impact of West
Nile virus will be as significant in 2003 as it was in 2002,” said Dr. Paul
Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global
Environment at the Harvard Medical School.
Epstein said West Nile is a greater threat than SARS because it has
infected 230 types of animals, including 138 species of birds.
Douglas Causey, senior biologist at the Harvard University Museum of
Comparative Zoology, said the virus has spread into animals and birds in the
Caribbean and is the leading suspect in a tenfold drop in several bird species
in Costa Rica during the past year.