Stop West Nile virus by disrupting mosquitoes’ breeding cycle, officials say

April 26, 2000
Web posted at: 10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 GMT)

From wire and staff reports

WASHINGTON -- Federal health authorities are working with 17 states to try to head off an outbreak of the West Nile virus that killed seven people in and around New York City last year.

Stephen Ostroff, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's West Nile coordinator, said birds and mosquitoes that carry the virus are being tracked in states along the Atlantic Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. Humans may contract the virus when bitten by an infected mosquito.

Officials are concerned birds from the Northeast may have spread the virus, a form of encephalitis, when they migrated south. An infected dead bird was found in Baltimore, the only bird with the virus to be found outside the New York City area, Ostroff said.

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The CDC is providing the 17 states and two cities considered at risk for the virus with $2.7 million to create surveillance programs to monitor the disease. They are: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Disrupting mosquito-breeding areas helps stop the virus, CDC officials said Tuesday in a news conference. People should take steps such as emptying stagnant water from flower pots and other containers, treating private swimming pools with appropriate chemicals and removing other standing water where mosquitoes may grow from swimming larva to flying adults.

The virus is primarily a bird disease, and as many as 10,000 crows died last year from the spreading infections in metropolitan New York, officials said. The deaths of several horses in the area also were attributed to the virus, which causes inflammation of brain tissues.

Mosquitoes that take blood from infected birds and then bite people are the principal means for transmitting the virus, according to a report from the CDC.

The CDC report said typical West Nile viral infections in people are mild inflammation of the brain with symptoms that include fever, headache, body aches, skin rash and swollen lymph glands.

"More severe infection may be marked by headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, paralysis and, rarely, death," the report said.

For additional information, email the CDC at dvbid@cdc.gov or call 970-221-6400, fax 970-221-6476.

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New York City Department Of Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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