Asleep on the job. The spread of West Nile Virus.
by Ralph Maughan. Oct. 6, 2002If it smacks of terror, the Bush Administration is right on it, but if they see it as a natural environmental hazard, then it's something for the states or the corporations to take care of.
I began following the course of the West Nile virus in 1999 when it was first detected in New York.
In 2001 in my environmental politics class I used the examples of West Nile, chronic wasting disease, and sudden oak death as biological pollution, and predicted they would not go away, but would spread to become major problems.
Now thousands of cases of CWD and West Nile later, predictions have been confirmed.
West Nile virus will be a serious disease for the population of North America, and it may be an environmental catastrophe that will harm the human population by destroying eco-systems with plagues of rodents and insects.
There are many mosquito borne encephalitises in North America: St. Louis Encephalitis, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Western Equine Encephalitis, La Crosse Encephalitis. They emerge sporadically to sicken and kill horses and from several to several dozen people in localities. Then they disappear for a while.
They disappear because they have a animal host or hosts that vary over time in the degree to which they can infect mosquitoes. The appearance of these diseases is also affected by the weather because weather determines in part how many mosquitoes there are, composition of the mosquito population, the time of day or night of their activity, etc.
West Nile Virus is different. It does not affect just a few animals, which can serve as a reservoir for future infections. It infects well over a hundred species of birds, and an unknown number of mammals. The host reservoir from which to infect mosquitoes is huge and growing. The percentage of infected mosquitoes will increase. West Nile is not confined to occasional local or statewide irruptions. Instead it has spread continuously across the United States and into Canada and Mexico.
The reaction of the Center for Disease Control is not serious. "Wear long-sleeved shirts," "don't go out at dawn or dusk," "empty standing water in your yard," "wear DEET whenever you go where there might be mosquitoes." In other words, anyone who works outdoors or recreates must always wear unpleasant, partially-effective DEET, put on a long shirt in the middle of the summer, and confine their hours to the hottest part of the day.
The truth may well be that most everyone who spends time outdoors is going to get this disease. Fortunately, it appears that the large majority will not get sick, or not very sick. Perhaps they will then be immune. Nevertheless, thousands will die.
Our elected leaders rarely look beyond the next election, so they don't react to potential new dangers. Yes, we are geared up to react to terrorism, but West Nile is not thought to be in that category. Reaction of West Nile might follow patterns of HIV. We only have to look back at the beginning of AIDS to witness governmental inaction for years while the then, so-called, "gay plague" spread and spread.
Have any of them considered what this disease will do to agriculture, forestry, and outdoor recreation?
West Nile kills off many of the avian predators of rodents. Will there be a plague of rodents? Will there be a plague of insects that the dead birds would have eaten?
Some basic research money is needed.
Are people who contract West Nile and survive, immune?
Most cases of West Nile are healed with few or no symptoms. Are there long term effects that emerge well after the initial infection?
Is there an asymptomatic carrier state of West Nile that infects the blood supply beyond the handful of donors who give just as they are becoming ill?
Can biting insects other than mosquitoes carry infected blood from birds to others?
Is it really true that there is no spread of the disease among animals except by mosquitoes?
Finally, it was recently reported that government gave samples of West Nile virus and other diseases to Iraq in the early 1980s. The disease started near New York City in 1999. How do we know it is not terrorism?
President Bush, are you listening?
Records Show US Sent Biological Weapons Germs to Iraq
by Matt Kelley. AP