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West Nile Virus Stretching
US Health Resources

By Maggie Fox
Health and Science Correspondent
9-28-2


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The epidemic of West Nile virus, which has killed 94 people this year and made nearly 2,000 sick, has stretched the resources of the U.S. public health system, officials said Tuesday.
 
The virus has also thrown up a few surprises -- spreading faster than predicted, causing a previously unseen polio-like disease in some, and getting into donated blood and organs, the officials told the U.S. Congress.
 
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency received $29 million this year to spend fighting West Nile virus. "That money was used to shore up surveillance and tracking in birds, she told a hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
 
Although the agency had responded well to the epidemic, Gerberding said she thought "the system was stretched."
 
West Nile, first diagnosed in a Ugandan woman in 1937, is common in Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East but only appeared in the United States in 1999. It spread to much of the country this year, as well as Canada and the Cayman Islands.
 
"The population we are most concerned about are the elderly people who are at the highest risk of the severe form of the disease," Gerberding said.
 
Birds serve as the host of the West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes to other birds as well as to people, horses and squirrels.
 
"Most mosquitoes that transmit this virus live in suburban back yards," Gerberding said. She advised people to wear long sleeves and pants, use insect repellents and drain standing water from birdbaths and outside containers.
 
Dr. Jesse Goodman, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said it was important to develop screening tests to protect the nation's blood supply and scarce donor organs.
 
"Certainly from the FDA's point of view this is a priority," Goodman told the hearing."
 
RISK SMALLER THAN BENEFIT OF BLOOD
 
The risk of catching West Nile virus is smaller than the benefit of a lifesaving blood or organ donation, Goodman said. But he admitted the FDA was surprised when four people became infected after receiving organs from a single donor.
 
Five others may also have caught the virus from transfusions with infected blood and warnings went out to blood banks to ask donors if they have suffered from fever, body aches or other symptoms of viral infection.
 
West Nile virus only makes about 20 percent of those infected sick and most have a very minor illness. This means people may unconsciously pass on the disease without knowing they have been infected.
 
"If people can have the disease without any symptoms, we take it seriously," said Goodman, adding that this is unlikely.
 
Based on what is known about the virus, people who do not become ill should clear it from their systems quickly. Experts believe such people have lifelong immunity from the virus.
 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, said that based on patterns with related viruses like yellow fever and dengue, the epidemic would wax and wane, possibly infecting fewer people next year.
 
As more healthy children and young adults are infected without becoming sick, they could create a growing pool of people immune to the virus.
 
"It is quite likely we will see a decrease," said Fauci. "It is extremely unlikely that the impact of West Nile virus would even get onto the same radar screen as...flu and HIV/AIDS. It's not going to wipe out scores of millions of people. But to say this is trivial would be far underestimating it.
 
Fauci described the polio syndrome is "new and alarming," although it is extremely rare. At least four patients, all in their 50s, have shown symptoms of the syndrome, developing partial paralysis. One is now on a ventilator.
 
 
Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.






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