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Two chickens have tested positive for West Nile Virus, according the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. The samples were taken from coops located in Thermal and southwest of Mecca, said a CMVCD spokesperson. The news comes one day after the agency announced a Cathedral City resident became the first human case of West Nile reported in the area since 2008. District staff will intensify mosquito surveillance, spraying larvicide, and making the public aware in these areas in an effort to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes.

Two dead crows found in Sunnyvale and San Jose have tested positive for West Nile virus, the first infected birds in Santa Clara County this year. The birds, discovered last week, were in the West San Jose area near Bongate Court and Latimer Avenue and in Sunnyvale near Orleans Drive, north of Highway 237. So far, no human West Nile virus cases have been found in Santa Clara County and the Vector Control District is collecting adult mosquitoes weekly for testing. In addition, the district is following patterns of where the dead birds are found in an effort to identify...

About 4,000 foreclosed homes in Los Angeles County have backyard pools. Health officials fear that many of these pools will turn into perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes -- and the dreaded West Nile virus -- if they go unmaintained.

Severe West Nile Infection Could Lead To Lifetime Of Symptoms ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2008) — Most people who suffer severe infection with West Nile virus still experience symptoms years after infection and many may continue to experience these symptoms for the rest of their lives according to research presented March 17 at the 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia. "What we are finding is that about 60% of people, one year after severe infection with West Nile, still report symptoms," says Kristy Murray of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, a lead researcher...

Deadliness of West Nile virus explained 22 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service A single genetic mutation might explain why West Nile virus has, within a decade, switched from causing relatively mild infections in humans to outbreaks of deadly encephalitis. The virus, which can pass to humans via mosquitoes that feed on infected birds, didn't pose a serious threat until the mid-1990s, when outbreaks of deadly infection sprang up in Israel, Romania, Russia and eventually North America. Aaron Brault and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, discovered that these new strains have in common a mutation in the gene for...

This is one of those elephant in the living room kinds of problems which people ought to be talking about but don't seem to be. I mean, of all the animals I never would have figured I'd ever feel sorry for or which would ever be scarce or quality as an endangered species or anything like that..... I mean, you can't find crows in Virginia or Maryland any more, they're gone. We used to have enormous flocks of crows in Alexandria; all gone. We've got one lonely crow living at Southern Towers now, the sole survivor. Likewise I was out...

Saratoga Man 1st West Nile Case In Santa Clara Co. (BCN) SARATOGA, Calif. The first confirmed human case of West Nile virus in the Bay Area in 2006 is a 65-year-old Saratoga man who was never hospitalized and has recovered, Santa Clara County public health officials announced Tuesday. The county Public Health Department suspects that a second man, a Cupertino resident over 50, may also have been infected with the virus but the results of confirming tests will not be known until next week, according to county Deputy Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody. "We know that West Nile Virus is...

The six-year old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths. Still early in this year's West Nile virus season (there is a time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms occur), the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts (primarily birds) in 44 states, and has caused almost a thousand serious infections and a score of deaths in humans in 36 states. As of...

Noisy Spring Avoiding the West Nile virus. By Henry I. Miller The six-year-old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths. Though still early in the West Nile virus season (there is a time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms occur), this year the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts (primarily birds) in 39 states, and has caused more than a hundred serious...

"An elderly Fresno County man is the third person in the state to die from complications of West Nile virus this year."

Max del Hierro never saw the mosquito, and thought little of the itchy welt on his right ankle. But that bite in August was the start of a painful, crippling ordeal that nearly cost the San Jose computer engineer his life, and has since given him a new sense of purpose. * * * Del Hierro was well aware of West Nile virus before he contracted it. He knew that dead birds had been found infected with the virus in the hills where he liked to walk and bike. But it didn't occur to him that he might have caught...

... Mosquitoes feeding on the same mouse can pass the West Nile virus among themselves, even in the absence of a viral infection in their unwitting host. This mosquito-to-mosquito transmission, observed in a laboratory by researchers from Texas and Britain, suggests the virus that has blazed across North America may have benefited from a mechanism in which some animals serve as little more than temporary conduits for viral particles. If the phenomenon - known as nonviremic transmission - indeed occurs in nature, it may force re-evaluation of the assumption that animals such as horses or rodents are so-called dead-end hosts...

It's 'like nothing we've ever seen before,' O.C. official says. West Nile virus is making a powerful, early showing in Orange County birds this season, possibly signaling an unusually large burst of virus- carrying mosquitoes that was fueled by winter rains. Fourteen dead birds have tested positive for the disease since January. In some bird tissues, infection was so massive that cellular staining used to detect the virus in the laboratory, normally visible only under a microscope, could be seen with the naked eye.

Dead Bird With West Nile Found In Washtenaw County State Issues Warning Of Potential Risk To Humans POSTED: 4:31 pm EDT May 13, 2005 Michigan has reported its first West Nile infected bird of the season. A blue jay, found in Washtenaw County, was collected earlier this month and tested positive for West Nile virus at Michigan State University's Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health. The Michigan departments of Agriculture, Community Health and Natural Resources, as well as Michigan State University, announced its findings Friday. "Because we cannot predict the impact West Nile virus will have on Michigan again...

This month, the New Jersey Pest Management Association issued a news release to warn against the prospect of billions of mosquitoes and threat of West Nile Fever they pose. West Nile Fever arrived in New York City in 1999 and, within three years, it had spread to California. In Washington, an executive order was signed recently to insure that avian flu does not reach these shores and, when a single case of Mad Cow Disease was discovered, the border was shut to Canadian beef. When SAARS broke out in Red China a few years ago, it too was quickly quarantined....

Notwithstanding former President Jimmy Carter's recent statement to the contrary, Undersecretary of State John Bolton's remarks about Cuba's biological weapons capabilities underscore lingering concerns with the rogue island only 90 miles from the United States. Bolton, on May 6, told an audience at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation that the U.S. is suspicious about Cuban biomedical laboratories and their ability to transfer biological weapons technology to Iraq, Syria and Libya, all countries that Cuban President Fidel Castro visited last year. Bolton also made remarks, which may be interpreted as a clear signal of hardening State Department policy toward Cuba, faulting...

West Nile virus activity has been detected in 53 of 58 counties in California! Humans: As of August 27, 2004, a total of 343 West Nile virus infections have been reported from 14 counties, inlcuding the first human case from San Diego County. Twenty of these cases were first detected in asymptomatic individuals through screening done at blood banks - four later became symptomatic Of the 327 WNV cases with symptoms, 124 are classified as West Nile fever cases, 121 are classified as West Nile neuroinvasive disease, and 82 are of unknown status. There have been ten fatalities to date...

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Federal health officials are worried about a polio-like form of West Nile virus that has infected more than 30 people, including a California water skier who was bitten by an infected mosquito in Colorado last summer. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are monitoring the rare disease known as acute flaccid paralysis, or West Nile poliomyelitis, which struck down 32 residents last year in Colorado. "Most of the people have a condition almost identical to that caused by the polio virus," CDC epidemiologist James Sejvar told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Those developing...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 62-year-old Claremont man killed by the West Nile virus was remembered as a scholar and persistent Green Party activist. Walter Sheasby, who died Thursday from complications of the mosquito-borne illness, ran for public office four times, including twice against U.S. Rep. David Dreier in the heavily Republican 28th Congressional District, state party officials said Tuesday. "He had the guts to run in an area that was not the most Green-friendly in the state," said Santa Monica City Councilman Michael Feinstein.

Officials say West Nile virus found in 37 capital-area birds By Dorsey Griffith and Edie Lau -- Bee Staff Writers Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, August 21, 2004 Sacramento County health officials announced Friday that West Nile virus has been detected in 37 birds, a sign that the mosquito-borne illness is well established in the area. At a press conference in Sacramento's McKinley Park, the health officials said that while no human in the county has become ill with the virus, everyone should continue to take precautions against mosquito bites and to call the state if they find dead birds....

Nevada County confirms West Nile By Barbara Barte Osborn Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, August 20, 2004 NEVADA COUNTY - The first confirmation of the presence of the West Nile virus in Nevada County was received Thursday by the county Department of Environmental Health.

Humans: As of August 10, 2004, a total of 116 WNV infections have been reported from the following local health jurisdictions: San Bernardino (55), Los Angeles (34) [includes Long Beach (1) and Pasadena (1) cities], Riverside (19), Orange (2), Imperial (1), Kern (2), Fresno (2), and Tulare (1) counties. Seven of these WNV infections were initially detected in asymptomatic individuals through screening done at blood banks - one of these individuals later became symptomatic. Of the 110 WNV cases with symptoms, 51 are classified as West Nile fever cases, 49 are classified as West Nile neuroinvasive disease, and 10 are...

With West Nile virus surfacing in the Sacramento Valley, mosquito control agencies on Thursday asked growers to pay more to offset the rice industry's massive mosquito-making machine. Growers flood 500,000 acres every summer to produce their crop, creating prime habitat for mosquitoes. That fact took on new significance as public health officials confirmed Thursday that the dreaded mosquito-born disease has invaded rice country. "It's time for the people who cause the bulk of the problems to step up," said Jim Camy, manager of the Butte County Mosquito & Vector Control District. "They need to ... come up with some real...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Santa Clara County health officials confirmed on Wednesday that a dead bird found in San Jose has tested positive for West Nile Virus. It's the first confirmation of the virus anywhere in the county. West Nile Virus is one of a group of disease-causing viruses spread by mosquitoes. Sara Cody, the county's assistant health officer, said people can take precautions to reduce the risk of infection. "By protecting yourself against mosquitoes and mosquito bites, you can protect yourself against West Nile Virus," Cody said. "It's important to remember, most people bitten by mosquitoes won't become...

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 WEST NILE WATCHMosquito plague spreads to 4 more states1st horse infections discovered in California Posted: June 30, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com West Nile virus spread yesterday to Tennessee, Connecticut, Kansas and Nebraska, with positive signs of infection in birds or humans in nearly every state in the continental U.S. reported this year, a survey by WorldNetDaily shows. In addition, California's first cases of horse infections were reported in both Riverside and San Bernardino counties as officials prepared for a second round of pesticide spraying in Fontana, where six humans contracted the mosquito-borne virus. Four horses –...

Domestic strain of virus deadlier to birds, humans than anywhere else – except Israel

LOS ANGELES - Mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus have been discovered in Glendale and the San Fernando Valley and five people in San Bernardino County have contracted the disease, prompting health officials Friday to warn of a potentially critical health threat. Mosquitoes trapped in early June in Granada Hills, North Hills and Glendale were determined late Thursday to be carrying the potentially deadly virus. Officials with the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District expressed concern at the discovery so early in the mosquito season -- a fear borne out Friday afternoon when state officials reported that five people...

West Preparing for Return of West Nile By DAN D'AMBROSIO, Associated Press Writer DELTA, Colo. - Insects are shaking off the winter cold in the West, promising another season of the West Nile virus, the mosquito-borne killer that has infected thousands of people — killing 564 of them — since the first domestic case turned up in New York in 1999. For two-thirds of the country, the crisis has largely passed. But in the West, health officials are drawing up battle plans from the apple orchards of western Colorado to the California coast. Carried by birds bitten by infected mosquitos,...

Salem, Ore. _ West Nile virus will finally catch up with the Pacific Northwest this summer, according to public health officials, who are warning the public to be ready for the coming onset of mosquito season. Oregon and Washington are the last holdouts in the contiguous 48 states since the disease was introduced in New York in 1999. West Nile virus spreads when a mosquito feeds on an infected bird, and then passes the virus to its next victim, including birds, animals and humans. In people, West Nile virus affects the central nervous system and symptoms range from fever and...

West Nile Is Blamed on Hybrid Mosquito Mar 5, 2004 By PAUL RECER / AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human infection by West Nile virus may be more common in North America than in Europe because of a hybrid mosquito that bites both birds and humans, carrying the virus from one to the other. European mosquito species tend to bite either birds or humans, but not both, a researcher says. A genetic study of the Culex pipiens mosquito in 33 locations in Europe has found that there are two different forms of the same species with different behaviors. One...

Flu isn't a spending priority By Seth Borenstein Knight Ridder Newspapers December 22, 2003 WASHINGTON - The flu kills 36,000 Americans a year, but the federal government spends only about half as much money on research to fight it as it spends to attack boll weevils, which are cotton pests. Other diseases that grab headlines or have advocacy groups or celebrity spokespeople - such as AIDS, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease - kill far fewer people than the inseparable duo of influenza and pneumonia. But the National Institutes of Health spends between eight and 100 times more money researching those more...

Should your health be left to you and your doctor? Or should agents of your federal, state or local government manage it? And should those charged with public heath responsibilities give higher priority to non-health agendas than to saving human lives? Although we've often discussed these question in overall policy terms, looking at the health care systems in this country and health insurance arrangements, we're going to look at how political policies impact your health through the public health departments in federal, state and local governments. In particular, we'll look how the management and mismanagement of the outbreak of the...

Panel wonders if West Nile is bioterrorism, Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is West Nile virus bioterror? The U.S.-Mexico Border Commission plans to take up as one of its topics later this year the West Nile virus. Dr. Laurance Nickey, one of the commissioners, said experts are projecting a favorable season for the mosquito that transmits the virus. It is intriguing that the Centers for Disease Control says on its Web site that the virus was not detected in the Western Hemisphere until 1999, when it hit New York City. Before that, the CDC reports, the virus was...

4 people are critically ill on Staten Island, suffering from a mysterious infectious disease ------------------------- New York City health officials issued a medical alert Friday night to doctors and hospitals in the 5 boroughs and triggered the national alert system through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though it was not clear whether the cases are the result of the same disease or are related in any way, the Health Department asked that all clinicians be vigilant. City health officials checked the new Syndromic Surveillance Network, a hospital computer system that allows the Health Department to look for...

<p>A Riverside County man has tested positive for West Nile virus, a sign that the disease now has a solid foothold in California, state health officials said Thursday.</p> <p>The 31-year-old man was working outdoors near the Santa Ana River basin when he became ill late last month. He was hospitalized with viral meningitis and is now at home recovering, said Evelyn Tu, West Nile virus surveillance coordinator for the state Department of Health Services.</p>

For a half-century now, Fidel Castro has been in power in Cuba, just 90 miles away from Florida. Unfortunately, not only could this have been prevented, but the United States today has the resources to finally give the Cuban people the freedom they deserve, with not a shot being fired. The mass opposition to Castro’s dying regime makes a unique opportunity to win a victory in the War on Terrorism, the struggle against proliferation, the War on Drugs, and ultimately, world peace. As I will explain below, the fact that we have such capability doesn’t mean we have the option...

Without a cure, the West Nile Virus, transmitted and spread by mosquitoes, has killed thousands of people around the world. But now, thanks to Israeli microbiologists, there is a vaccine. According to a report on the Israel21c.org website, it has already proven effective in lab mice and has been employed in the recovery of an infected woman at Laniado Hospital in Netanya, as well as improvements in two other hospitalized victims. In Israel, several hundred people have been infected by the virus, and dozens died. In the U.S., West Nile Virus has infected 4,156 people, killing 282. The researchers behind...

  Purdue News Purdue biologists receive nearly $18 million to study infectious diseases WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – As part of a major U.S. presidential initiative to combat bioterrorism, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a pair of grants to Purdue University researchers to help the group study viruses thought to have potential as biological weapons.While the two grants are to support research projects that are independent of one another, together they will allow Purdue biologists to pursue both basic research on viruses and also speed the development of antiviral agents that could stem from this basic research. Richard J....

<p>Mary Tilger considers herself one of the in-between people -- the West Nile virus didn't kill her, but it left the 32-year-old mother unable to care for her children for weeks.</p> <p>"I am very healthy. I exercise and I am not overweight. But I had severe tremors in my arms and legs, double vision and severe headaches," the Denver woman said Friday.</p>

Israeli microbiologists have developed the first passive vaccine, effective for six weeks, against the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, which has killed thousands and infected many more around the world. The vaccine is based on immunoglobulin taken from blood donors found to contain active antibodies against the virus, for which there is no available cure. The team includes Prof. Bracha Rager, until recently chief scientist of the Health Ministry, who is also a veteran researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's microbiology and immunology department, and Dr. David Ben-Nathan of the Biological Institute in Ness Ziona. The disease was eliminated in...

ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. health officials reported on Monday that the West Nile virus had resurfaced in two dozen states, but they stopped short of predicting another record outbreak of the deadly mosquito-borne disease. West Nile has been detected in birds, horses and mosquitoes in at least 24 states so far this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has tracked the virus since it first emerged in the United States in 1999. No human cases have been reported this year. Dr. Stephen Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC's national center for infectious diseases, said...

Microscopic crablike creatures with a voracious appetite for swimming larvae may soon become the newest weapon in the war on mosquitoes. A University of Florida researcher believes the tiny crustaceans have big potential for helping control buzzing hordes that have become a serious health threat with the spread of West Nile virus, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. ''They'll pretty much kill any mosquito larvae they see,'' said Jorge Rey, a professor at the University of Florida's Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach. Rey hopes the organisms called copepods, common in Florida waters, will bolster the growing arsenal of what scientists...

It was big news that the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq after the conclusion of major combat operations has surpassed the number killed during the war itself. In fact, however, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the VFW convention, the war produced "fewer casualties and less destruction than probably any war in history." The media, especially cable news organizations, are focusing on daily attacks on U.S. soldiers. "Each setback in Iraq is repeated and repeated and repeated," Rumsfeld said, "as if it were 10 or 20 setbacks." Conditioned by the media’s gloom-and-doom reporting, the latest Newsweek poll finds...

Thursday, August 28 Curfew possible to combat malaria By Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 28, 2003 Despite a record seven locally transmitted malaria cases and a looming threat of a West Nile virus outbreak, Palm Beach County health director Dr. Jean Malecki said Wednesday she still hopes to avoid a curfew. "I'm hoping people will take responsibility for themselves without our having to turn their lives upside down," she said. But, she said, she learned as a Girl Scout leader, "Always be prepared." What experts are calling the most significant malaria outbreak in Florida since the...

Federal Agency Says West Nile Doubles Again; More Than 1,400 People Infected The Associated Press ATLANTA Aug. 27 — West Nile virus activity has again doubled, now affecting more than 1,400 people in the United States, federal officials said Wednesday. Thirty-four states reported a total of 1,442 cases and 21 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Last week, the agency reported 715 cases and 14 deaths. Colorado and the central United States continue to be the hardest hit. Colorado's 635 human cases lead the country, followed by 204 cases in South Dakota, 190 in Nebraska and 106...

More cases of Malaria, West Nile found in South Florida Sun-Sentinel Posted August 23 2003, 4:56 PM EDT FORT LAUDERDALE -- Health officials have confirmed a third case of West Nile virus this year in Broward County and a fourth case of malaria in Palm Beach County. A 51-year-old woman was confirmed Friday to be infected with West Nile. She was hospitalized with serious symptoms, including partial paralysis, but was recovering, Broward health officials said. The woman, whose name and residence were not released, contracted the mosquito-borne disease in the first week of August, officials said. The health department said...

DENVER (AP) - The West Nile virus has killed four animals at the Denver zoo and infected four of the falcons used as mascots at the Air Force Academy. The wolf, reindeer, goose and swan were the first animals to die from the virus at the zoo. Officials are awaiting test results on a dead camel to find out whether it was a victim. Last year, a flamingo at the zoo was the only animal infected with West Nile. It recovered. ''This is just part of the whole big picture'' in the state hardest-hit by the virus, zoo veterinarian Dr....

<p>ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- West Nile virus continues to plague the central Plains, with nearly 80 percent of the nation's cases occurring in four states, federal officials said in their weekly update Thursday.</p> <p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus killed three people in the past week, bringing the nationwide death toll to 14.</p>

Weekly cases of West Nile Virus are being reported from around the country. These media reports often mention that only the very old may die from the dreaded virus. Is this meant to reassure us – only Grandma and Grandpa may die? Taken in a larger context it is apparent that the human death toll from environmental policies continues to mount while the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" and "Dallas Morning News" lecture us on riding the train and the bus. The US is in the midst of a nationwide virus epidemic from disease-carrying mosquitoes because misinformed or timid politicians refuse to...

Source: NIH/National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases Date: 2003-08-19 Promising West Nile Virus Vaccine Protects Monkeys Scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have created a promising vaccine against West Nile virus by replacing parts of a distantly related virus with proteins from the West Nile virus. The NIAID research team replaced proteins in a virus known as dengue type 4 with the corresponding West Nile virus proteins, creating a hybrid virus vaccine that protects monkeys from West Nile infection, they report in a paper to be published in the September issue of the journal...