Tuesday, July 04, 2000
Tristate on lookout for mosquito-borne virus
By Michael D. Clark
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A deadly virus new to the American continent and spread by mosquitoes will soon launch health alerts throughout Ohio and the Tristate.
Carried by the common Culex mosquito, the West Nile Virus killed seven in New York state last summer and seriously sickened more than 60 other people along the eastern seaboard. Previously, the virus had never been reported in either North or South America.
Area health officials say it's unlikely the West Nile virus will reach the Tristate this summer. But it's only a matter of time before the deadly virus, for which there is no vaccine or cure, spreads to the Midwest.
Later this week, Ohio health officials will alert health commissioners in each of the state's 88 counties to the possible danger of the virus, which previously was found only in Africa, southern Europe and Asia. They also will ask the public to be on the lookout for an unusu ally high number of deaths among crows or other birds, which is one of the early signs that infected mosquitoes have entered the area.
Though no cases of West Nile virus have been reported outside of a handful of East Coast states, doctors in Ohio and Kentucky are adjusting current monitoring of mosquitoes to include screening for the deadly virus.
“Ohioans should be aware of events on the East Coast and should be concerned about the possibility of the virus coming to Ohio,” said Dr. Richard Berry, chief of Ohio's Vector Borne Disease Program. “I don't expect to see it in Ohio this year, but we will be looking for it.”
Cincinnati Health Commissioner Dr. Malcolm Adcock said the migration speed of the virus eastward into the Ohio Valley “will be difficult to predict.”
“But there is no reason to believe it won't come here,” said Dr. Adcock.
Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram said that, “generally, viruses have a tendency to make their way inland to the Midwest.”
Officials from the Kentucky Department for Public Health said no cases of the virus have been detected in the commonwealth, but that testing to detect the disease has begun.
Mosquito testing for the virus, and others, is being done in Louisville's Jefferson County and Lexington's Fayette County, said Barbara Hedley Smith, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services.
The West Nile virus kills by inflammation of the brain. Humans contract the disease when bitten by an infected mosquito. Fatality rates among those bitten range from 3 percent to 15 percent and are highest among the elderly, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virus is similar to St. Louis and La Cross encephalitis, which are also carried by mos quitoes and occasionally have been reported in Ohio since the mid-1960s. Last year, a 13-year-old boy in Thurston, Ohio, southeast of Columbus, became the seventh person to die of the La Cross virus since 1963.
This summer, New York state and city health officials have set up an elaborate monitoring system that includes the regular capture and testing of mosquitoes for the virus as well as the first-ever use of live chickens at 13 sites around New York City. These flocks of “sentinel” chickens serve as early warning alerts once infected mosquitoes bite them and the West Nile virus shows up in their blood, which is tested weekly.
Though there are no plans statewide or locally to use chickens as disease sentinels, both Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials said they will forward captured mosquitoes to state testing facilities in Columbus.
“I'm glad to hear the state is taking this initiative,” said Mr. Ingram.
Dr. Berry said each county health commissioner will be contacted via letter this week and asked to forward samples of mosquitoes many counties already capture to test for other diseases. He also said that beginning in August, volunteer veterinary students from Ohio State University will begin traveling the state — including Greater Cincinnati — to draw blood from selected birds.
Linda Rosselot of West Chester is an avid gardener whose outdoor work gives her plenty of exposure to mosquitoes. But Ms. Rosselot said it's too early to be concerned about contracting the West Nile virus.
“Maybe later on, when it gets here. Then I'd definitely prepare for them,” she said.
Anyone seeing an unusual die-off of crows in Cincinnati or Hamilton County is encouraged to contact Cincinnati health officials at (513) 357-7200 or Hamilton County health officials at (513) 946-7878.
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