According to Dr. John Walker, public health officer for the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, the county is currently working in a comprehensive network to look for evidence of the disease in both animals and insects.

The network includes staff from Stanislaus County Animal Services, Mosquito Abatement districts and scientists from the California Department of Health Services.

“It is probably only a matter of time before testing shows the presence of the virus in animals or humans in California,” Walker said. “The medical community will be prepared, and we want our communities to be armed with information.”

West Nile is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on a bird which carries the virus.

In turn, the mosquito can pass the virus to other animals – and humans.

One way in which the county is preparing for the potential spread of this disease is by stepping up surveillance of the virus. This includes testing sentinel flocks of chicken for the disease in an ongoing program that tracks birds for various diseases.

According to Jerry Davis, manager of the Turlock Mosquito Abatement District, the chickens are bled every two weeks and samples are sent to state laboratories where they are then tested for the virus.

So far, of the 14,000 pools of chickens tested, there have been no positive samples of the West Nile Virus, said Walker.

In addition to tracking infected birds, TMAD is also testing for infected mosquitoes and trying to control its breeding sites, usually where there is standing water. Because adult mosquitoes are the ones that carry the virus, the goal is to prevent the mosquitoes in the water from becoming adults.

“It’s mostly good to keep the mosquito population down anyway,” said Davis.

“Because they bite, they can really affect people’s quality of life.”

As of Tuesday, there had been 673 reported human cases for 2002 of the virus. So far 32 people have died this year.

Although the disease is serious, Stanislaus County public health microbiologist Larry Sampson believes the media have blown it a bit out of proportion because the disease is fairly new and uncommon.

“There are many more deaths in influenza than West Nile,” he noted. “Mosquito borne illness are not new to California. We’ve had the St. Louis encephalitis, and West Nile is just one more.”

But David Jones, public information officer for HSA, stressed that the agency is taking West Nile very seriously.

“The more information we get out to the public, the better,” he said.

“We think that if people are more aware, then we have a better chance of controlling the disease.”

Walker emphasized two goals the agency wants to accomplish. One is trying to form an alliance and establish clear links with the state of California for testing. The other is assuring the public that the virus is not a bioterrorist agent and that there is no evidence linking it to terrorist activity.

Symptoms of the virus include fever, headache, weakness, swollen glands and skin rash. Some people may have no symptoms at all. Most people who are infected with the virus will not have any type of illness.

The virus first appeared in New York City in 1999. Currently, 39 states including the District of Columbia have identified the presence of the virus. The most recent western cases reported have been in Montana and New Mexico.

Reprinted by permission of the Turlock Journal.