What do you do about an infectious disease that human and some animals are merely incidental victims in the biological play-by-play action of the bacteria? That is a question facing the CDC and numerous public health officials as the West Nile Virus spreads. Two people have now "officially" contracted the disease in Florida and reports are starting to filter in about birds that are infected as far west as Ohio. Officials in Colorado feel it is just a matter of time and are testing for the virus, waiting with grim anticipation for its appearance.
To understand the problems associated with West Nile one must understand its cyle and how it survives as a bacteria. West Nile is a disease caused by a bacteria that affects birds. It has become a zoonotic illness (transmittable between animals and humans) by virtue of the mosquito. The cycle began with infected birds that were bit by mosquitos who then bit primarily other birds and infecting those who were not already infected. The incidental part happened when a few mosquitos bit people and horses (there have been some minor numbers reported in other small animals) and the humans and horses became infected. The mosquito has become the enemy in this disease much like the rat did with bubonic plague hundreds of years ago. But as the rat was not the culprit and the flea turned out to be the problem, West Nile complicates itself terribly, because the mosquito is only spreading the disease. It is carried by a fairly wide variety of birds, primarily crows and blue jays. Regardless of the epidemiology of the disease however, the issue must be the mosquito bites, preventing them and being aware of the risks and locations of possible infection.
West Nile introduced itself to North America in the Northeastern part of the United States in 1999 and has killed at least nine people since that time. Further studies have shown that the estimates of the infected people who did not die were most likely seriously underreported due to the fact that the flu like illness was not recognized for what it was. One study published in the British medical Journal, The Lancet SOURCE: The Lancet 2001;358:254-255, 261-264 , estimates that for every case diagnosed and reported, there were 140 cases that went undetected. Dr. Farzad Mostashari, a medical epidemiologist with the New York City Department of Health who also works with the CDC agrees. "During the 1999 West Nile virus outbreak, thousands of symptomless and symptomatic West Nile viral infections probably occurred." The reason for this would be because the disease attacks more severely either the young or the elderly, and others in the population would most likely attribute their symptoms to a "summer flu" and not see a physician. But the concern began to grow as the path of the illness began to grow.
