Posted on 03/17/2003 7:57:29 AM PST by pwatson
Panel wonders if West Nile is bioterrorism, Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times
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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 common in Africa, Eastern Europe, West Asia and the Middle East. "It is most closely related genetically to strains found in the Middle East," the CDC says. The U.S. public health institution also says it has no clue how the virus arrived in the United States, except that it had to come by an infected mosquito, bird or human.
The virus is not transmitted by humans or by birds or other animals. It is spread by infected mosquitoes. It is closely related to the St. Louis encephalitis virus, and although researchers are working to develop a vaccine, there was no known treatment or vaccine to protect against the virus.
U.S. to Iraq?
Is it possible that the presence of West Nile virus in the United States is a form of bioterror, as some gulf war military veterans have suggested? We went from zero cases before the New York outbreak to 3,852 human cases nationwide as of late December 2002, including 232 fatalities.
The virus has been detected in 39 states, including Texas and New Mexico, and in Washington, D.C. The most severe form involves encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and those older than 50 are at high risk.
West Nile Fever virus is one of the pathogens shipped from the United States to Basrah, Iraq, on May 21, 1985, according to a May 25, 1994, report of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. The information was revealed during hearings on gulf war illness, spearheaded by Sens. Donald Riegle Jr. and Alfonse D'Amato.
U.S. approval
The report said that "the Centers for Disease Control has compiled a listing of biological materials shipped to Iraq prior to the gulf war. The listing covers ... Oct. 1, 1984, (when the CDC began keeping records) through Oct. 13, 1993. The following materials with biological warfare significance were shipped to Iraq during this period," the report said.
Other items sent to Iraq for the purposes of research and with the U.S. Commerce Department's approval were a bacteria that causes anthrax, a bacterial source of botulinum toxin and brucella melitensis, which causes chronic fatigue and organ damage.
It could be that West Nile virus found its way here naturally. Or, it could be the result of domestic or external bioterror. If our country had the virus and it was kept available for worldwide research, then it's possible Iraq or some other country sent it back, intentionally or accidentally.
Because authorities haven't found the "anthrax killer" who surfaced shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, a home-grown terrorist could have set the virus loose in the U.S. Regardless of how it happened, the CDC said the virus is here to stay.
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com
Your #8 post very interesting!
Colorado.......NORAD......a target?
What is the 'case' load in Mexico and Canada at this time?
Is this an 'Eastern' European (Yugoslav-Serbia-Kosovo)....'SURPRISE'...via Egypt/Iraq...?
'JFK'.....'Ted Maher'......stuff?
Another young, multi-lingual virologist bites the dust. How odd...
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