Recognized as the infamous silent disease, West Nile Virus (WNV) is depicted in the news to be a fatal disease triggering a nationwide frenzy. The virus is kept alive in the wild by being transferred from bird to mosquito, and back to bird. WNV is an arbovirus that causes encephalitis "brain swelling" (CDC 2006).
According to the CDC, less than one percent of individuals infected will never exhibit symptoms. Among those that have severe illness because of the virus the death rate by case ranges between three to fifteen percent with the highest fatality rate being seen among the elderly community. (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/westnile/qa/cases.htm).
Discovered in New York City in 1999, the virus has since spread across the continental US. Louisiana residents have reported infections of this virus since 2001; the record outbreak year was 2002, when Louisiana reported three hundred and twenty-eight cases with twenty-four fatalities. Just last year, the state reported one hundred and sixty cases of WNV neuroinvasive disease, which is somewhat down from the two hundred four neuroinvasive cases seen in 2002. For more than a decade the Department of Health and Hospital have tracked WNV and its occurrence statistics in Louisiana can be viewed in the Department of Health and Hospital's Arbovirus Surveillance Report. Officials of the state department conduct surveillances all the year, this entails working with hospitals, health care providers and doctors statewide to follow human West Nile infection cases as well as reminding individuals to be vigilant in avoiding being bitten by mosquitoes. (http://dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/2692).
In my community the abatement department along with the neighborhood vector control teams are constantly spraying and checking for mosquito pools in order to keep the population of infected mosquitos under control, as well as employing help of the community in reporting heavily infested mosquito areas or dead bird sightings.
