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- ATLANTA (Reuters) - The West
Nile virus has been found in a new species of mosquitoes north of New York
City, but the discovery does not warrant a change in existing precautions
against the brain-swelling illness, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.
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- The virus was found in aedus japonicus mosquitoes in
suburban Westchester County north of New York City, the first time that
the virus has been found in the species, which feeds during the day and
at night. Infected mosquitoes discovered last year were culex pipiens,
which feed mostly at night.
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- The discovery was announced in Atlanta as New York health
officials said a man died on Wednesday after showing signs of possible
West Nile virus, which killed seven people in the New York region last
summer and has returned to the area.
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- New York state epidemiologist Perry Smith told an Atlanta
conference co-sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) that the adeus japonicus mosquito ''probably is not the major vector
for human transmission.''
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- Dr. Stephen Ostroff, associate director of the CDC's
National Center for Infectious Diseases, said there is no evidence that
the species, first identified in 1998, has transmitted West Nile virus
to humans.
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- He said previously issued recommendations for New York-area
residents to use insect repellents and wear long-sleeved shirts and long
pants remained appropriate.
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- ``Overall, the risk is still pretty low,'' Ostroff said.
''It's a little too early to say what the role of a mosquito like this
would be.''
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- Duane Gubler, also of the CDC's National Center for Infectious
Diseases, said researchers did not know which species of mosquito were
most effective in transmitting West Nile virus.
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- ``This virus is quite ubiquitous. It has been isolated
from 43 species of mosquitoes,'' Gubler said. That total includes mosquito
species found in other parts of the world.
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- West Nile virus had never been identified in the western
hemisphere until it killed seven people and sickened 62 others in the New
York City area last year.
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- In other research presented at the International Conference
on Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC and U.S. Department of Agriculture
researchers concluded that young geese could transmit the virus to mosquitoes.
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- USDA and CDC researchers who inoculated poultry with
West Nile virus as part of another study said that it did not appear to
be fatal to chickens and turkeys but the birds could serve as a limited
reservoir for the virus.
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- Birds at the Bronx Zoo, including flamingos, bald eagles
and snowy owls were affected by the neurological disease last fall, Tracy
McNamara of the Wildlife Conservation Society told the conference.
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- Chickens and turkeys at the zoo showed no signs of illness,
but the widespread deaths of crows served as an indication of a viral outbreak.
``The crows served as our canaries in the coal mine. They were our sentinels,''
McNamara said.
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- In New York, health officials said a 71-year-old man
may be the first person to die this year of the brain-swelling West Nile
virus but noted he had other serious health problems.
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- New York City Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said it
was too early to determine the definitive cause of the man's death and
that it could be a few days before the results of blood tests were known.
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