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Friday > Archives
> 1999
> October
> October 1, 1999:
Hour Two: Medical Mystery: West Nile Virus
| Last month, we told you about a disease outbreak in the New York metropolitan area that had mosquito sprayers in overdrive. At the time, the disease was thought to be St. Louis encephalitis, an insect-borne illness harbored by birds. Now, scientists are revising their diagnosis. The four deaths and dozens of hospitalizations to date, they say, were caused by another, similar disease, called West Nile Virus - a disease never seen before in the western hemisphere. | 
Army workers spray for
mosquito control, 1945.
National Archives image. |
| What caused the change in diagnosis? A cluster of dead crows was found near the grounds of the Wildlife Conservation Society (the Bronx Zoo) in New York. Then, some of the birds in the zoo's collection fell victim.
Zoo researchers trying to track down the cause discovered traces of the foreign virus in the birds. At the same time, health workers using advanced techniques to study the human victims of the encephalitis outbreak found signs of the West Nile virus as well.
Some researchers are concerned that the disease may migrate south with bird populations. Other researchers say that some mosquitoes carrying the virus may be able to live through the winter, evading the killing frost. And research is going on into whether ticks might be able to spread the virus too. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll take a look at the detective work involved in tracking down the unusual disease, and talk about the status of the investigation. |
US Public Health Service, 1941-45
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Guests:
Durland Fish
Associate Professor
Epidemiology
School of Epidemiology and Public Health
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
W. Ian Lipkin, M.D.
Professor
Neurology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Emerging Diseases Laboratory
University of California
Irvine, California
Robert McLean
Director, National Wildlife Health Center
United States Geological Survey
Madison, Wisconsin
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
- West_Nile_Q&A
- CDC: Arboviral Encephalitis
- American Mosquito Control Association
- New York City Department of Health - DOH Press Release
- Wildlife Conservation Society Home Page
- Welcome to the Laboratory for Neurovirology !
- NVSL Welcome Page
Science Friday: 9/17/99: St. Louis Encephalitis -
- This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
Site Editor
Brad Kloza |